


Contemptible Me

by grace13star



Series: The Superhero AU I Need a Real Name For [1]
Category: Sanders Sides, Thomas Sanders, Thomas Sanders - (Video Blogging RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Big Bang Challenge, Check trigger warnings at beginning of chapters!!!, Deceit is a business tycoon evil supervillain named Lyle Draven, Gun Violence, Logan is Logic, M/M, Patton is Honor, Roman is The Fearless Prince, Thomas Sanders Big Bang, Violence, Virgil is Thomas's older brother, Virgil is anxiety, graphic description of violence, thank my friend Lily for the dramatic name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-18 09:46:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15483036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grace13star/pseuds/grace13star
Summary: Virgil always aimed to protect Thomas. And if that means becoming a super-villain stealing from the government, that's what he'll do.





	1. Prolouge

[Attention]  
[The following is classified testing results and notes. For [Redacted]’s eyes only]

Name: Englert-Falks, Aubree Marie  
Sex: F  
Birthday: January 24, 1980  
Age: 38  
Occupation: Store clerk/Vigilante  
Ethnicity: Mixed  
Alias(es): Black Light  
Immediate Family: Jerome Englert (M), Amani Englert (F), Jacque Englert (M), Audre Englert (M)  
Spouse: Fortune Stephanie Englert-Falks (F)  
Child(ren): Faith Andre Englert-Falks  
Allies: N/A

History: The youngest child in a family of five, brought up by her mother and father, as well as her grandfather who lived with them. Graduated from University of Miami in 2002 with a degree in sociology. 

Acquired enhanced abilities from unknown sources [Light Manipulation]. When Beacon, Avarill threatened the city [Redacted] months ago, she retaliated and brought him into custody. Received a Medal of Honor from President [Redacted]. 

Notes: Continued with vigilante work for [Redacted] years until identity was revealed by an unknown source. Had enhanced strength, ability and healing alongside her other powers. 

[Document written on [Redacted], 2005]   
[Notes written on [Redacted], 2016]

Name: Beacon, Averill  
Sex: M  
Birthday: September 8, 1978  
Age: 40  
Occupation: Librarian  
Ethnicity: Caucasian   
Alias(es):   
Immediate Family: Zoe Beacon (F), Phoebus Beacon (M), Zephyr Beacon (M)  
Spouse: N/A  
Children: N/A  
Allies: N/A

History: Brought up in a poor household just outside of Miami, with a single dad. Graduated community college in 2000 with a degree in Library Sciences and started working in the college library. 

Acquired enhanced abilities from unknown sources [Telekinesis]. Threatened the city using said powers and was brought into custody by Englert-Falks, Aubree. 

Notes: Claimed that he was doing it for his brother, Beacon, Zephyr, who disappeared a few months before [See more: Beacon, Zephyr]. Barely resisted authorities after initial fight. 

[Written on [Redacted], 2004]

Name: Beacon, Zephyr  
Sex: M  
Birthday: March 3, 1982  
Age: 36  
Occupation: N/A  
Ethnicity: Caucasian   
Alias(es): N/A  
Immediate Family: Zoe Beacon (F), Phoebus Beacon (M), Averill Beacon (M)  
Spouse: N/A  
Children: N/A  
Allies: N/A

History: [See Beacon, Averill, History paragraph I]

Disappeared three months before Averill’s threats against the city. Search parties were sent out, to no avail. Still officially MIA. Deceased as of 2005. 

Notes: Beacon, Averill claimed he was protecting Beacon, Zephyr when he attacked Miami

Name: Unknown  
Sex: M  
Birthday: Unknown  
Age: Unknown  
Occupation: Vigilante  
Ethnicity: Caucasian   
Alias(es): The Fearless Prince   
Immediate Family: Unknown  
Spouse: Unknown  
Children: Unknown  
Allies: Logic, Honor

History: First appeared in 2013 with a sidekick [See more: Honor] who later disappeared, but was still present behind the scenes. Initially fought petty crime (Ie: ATM robberies, mugging), but graduated when they encountered Anxiety [See more: Anxiety] stealing from a government facility. 

Notes: Appears to have enhanced strength and agility, as well as an advanced understanding of martial arts. 

Name: Unknown  
Sex: M  
Birthday: Unknown  
Age: Unknown  
Occupation: Vigilante  
Ethnicity: Caucasian   
Alias(es): Logic  
Immediate Family: Unknown  
Spouse: Unknown  
Children: Unknown  
Allies: The Fearless Prince, Honor

Notes: Logic is the tech support, and never actively participates in fights. He has made many helpful technological enhancements to Prince’s suit, as well as separate pieces. 

Name: Unknown  
Sex: M  
Birthday: Unknown  
Age: Unknown  
Occupation: Vigilante  
Ethnicity: Caucasian   
Alias(es): Anxiety  
Immediate Family: Unknown  
Spouse: Unknown  
Children: Unknown  
Allies: Unknown

History: Anxiety appeared a few months after the Fearless Prince and Honor’s appearance [See more: The Fearless Prince]. He was caught breaking into a government facility in [Redacted] by security tapes. 

He has been cornered stealing Axicunum [See more: 119] from various government holding containers including transports, holding facilities and ships, but has always managed to escape. 

Notes: Enhanced abilities include Illusions and Shadow Manipulation. 

 

119  
Axicunum  
Element Number 119  
Discovered by Sandra Ceran in 2003

Notes: Many shipments of 119 have been stolen by various criminals for unknown reasons. No information as to why this is, or what they do with it. Started with [REDACTED] after Beacon, Averill’s arrest.


	2. Virgil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings!  
> Description of a cut and blood  
> A sexual innuendo  
> Fighting  
> Mild language
> 
> If you want to skip it, stop reading from "the streets were dark and grimy." I'll post a summary at the end for anyone who skips it.

Virgil Sanders groaned and buried his head in the pile of books on his desk.

“You good, Brendon Urie?” Roman Prince, Virgil’s roommate asked, looking up from his sketchbook. 

“No,” Virgil groaned again. 

“What's the problem?”

“School starts tomorrow.” He groaned for the third time.

“Isn't it just wonderful?” Roman beamed. “I can't wait for the performances.”

“Shut up, Canigula.”

“...Who?”

Virgil lifted his head. “You know all those musicals-” he gestured to Roman’s half of the room, covered in musical posters “-but you don't know Be More Chill?”

“Is that a Broadway show?” 

Virgil laughed slightly. “No.”

Roman grabbed his phone and typed something. His eyes scanned whatever he had searched up. 

“It says that Be More Chill is a book,” he reported. 

“They turned it into a musical,” Virgil said. “Search it up with musical.”

Roman did so. “Oh.”

Virgil’s phone buzzed with a text. He glanced over and saw a glimpse of ‘Blocked Number’ in the notifications spot. He grimaced and ignored it. 

Roman was pulling out headphones and not paying attention to what Virgil was doing, so he grabbed his phone and checked the text. 

Axicunum. 11pm. XXXX XX St. 

Virgil glared at the text. 

“You okay there, Virge?” 

Virgil looked up to see Roman looking concerned, one headphone in and the other dangling and blaring More Than Survive. 

“Yeah, just a friend being stupid,” Virgil lied. 

“I am loving this musical,” Roman said. “It comes off a bit crude, but the music is wonderful.”

Virgil put the text out of his mind and grinned at his friend. “Just wait until you get to I Love Play Rehearsal.”

Roman gasped. “That's my song!”

“You haven't even heard it yet!”

“Shut up, Pete Wentz.”

“What's with all the compliments lately?”

There was a knock on the door, and then the person who knocked opened the door and walked in. 

“Heya, kiddos!” Patton grinned.

“You’re not even a year older than me,” Virgil deadpanned. 

“Pssh,” Patton bounded over to him and hugged him from behind. “ But you’re so cute!~”

“Shut up,” Virgil grumbled. “I am not cute.”

Logan pulled Patton off. “Patton, don’t smother him. That can’t be good for his health,”

Patton giggled. “Sorry. Are you guys ready for school?”

Virgil groaned yet again and banged his head on the desk yet again. Then he rubbed his head. He hadn’t meant to hit it that hard.

“Careful there, Panic At The Everywhere,” Roman said. “Don’t want anymore brain trauma,”

“Any more?” Virgil asked. “When…”

“Well obviously you were dropped as a child by your parents. I mean, look how you turned out.” Roman grinned, obviously pleased with the joke.

Virgil felt his throat close up a bit. He tried to laugh it off, but it was weak. 

“Are you sure you’re okay, kiddo?” Patton asked. “You don’t sound okay.”

Virgil had to smile at that. “No, I’m not okay.” He paused for effect. “I promise.”

Roman groaned, Logan shook his head, and Patton grinned.

“No, but seriously, I’m fine,” Virgil reassured them. 

Roman started off on a rant about something or other, and Virgil zoned him out. His mind was on the text. Did they have to text right at that moment? It’s like they knew how he was feeling and just had to make it worse. Because they hadn’t messed everything up already.

“-gil. Virgil!”

“Huh?” He looked up, startled. 

“Hey, I asked if you had any plans tonight,” Patton was looking concerned again.

“Oh, yeah, I have a shift at my job,” Virgil lied. It was becoming a habit. 

“Aww, too bad. We could’ve watched a movie before the term started,” Patton pouted. “Not in my room, James is going to be there.”

James was Patton’s roommate, and he was literally the worst roommate ever. He hid illegal alcohol in their room, most likely did drugs, and, worst of all, thought Roman and Virgil were dating and was very homophobic about it.

“You guys could still do that,” Virgil said. “Just don’t watch the Black Cauldron without me,”

“Don't worry, Edgy On Purpose, we’ll only watch soft and fluffy ones, finally without your comments,” Roman said. 

Virgil pushed aside the tiny pang of guilt that gave him, and he realized that Roman was joking. 

“Just don't get too bored without me,” he grinned. 

“We’ll do it here, then,” Roman announced. “We’ll save the Black Cauldron for our Annual Movie Night at the End of the First Week of School.” 

“Yeah, great. Can’t wait to get another bowl of popcorn dumped on my head.” Virgil deadpanned. 

“One time!” Roman exclaimed. “And I said I was sorry!”

“Doesn’t change the fact that I had popcorn in my ears,” Virgil grinned.

“Hey, why don’t we watch something right now?” Patton suggested. “You’ve got a little bit before your shift, right? So we could watch something right now!”

Logan adjusted his glasses. “That would be adequate, as I was hoping to spend some times with all of you before classes took up all our time.”

Roman shrugged. “Yeah, sure. What do you say, Virge?”

Virgil smirked. “I think...I’m picking!” He lunged for the movie bucket next to the tv and Roman, after screeching in surprise, was right behind him. Virgil reached it first and pulled out a movie.

“That seems fair,” Patton said, giggling at their antics. “What did ya pick, kiddo?”

“Again, not even a year older.” Virgil held up his choice.

“Ooh, nice!” Patton grinned.

“Good choice, Virgil,” Logan complimented.

“Megamind?” Roman whined. “That’s not even Disney.”

“No one said it had to be Disney, Forever 21,” 

The streets were dark and grimy and Virgil grimaced at it. Seriously, was it so hard to throw away your wrappers? He saw one right next to a garbage can, for heaven's sake.

Gods did he hate this. The waiting. 

He glanced around, paranoid that those dang heroes would come and kick him in the back when he was distracted. He couldn't fail this. If he did, who knew what could happen to...

What was that? Was that movement, or was his mind playing tricks on him? That would be just his luck. He heard Spider-Man, or Peter Parker had bad luck since there were all those people dying in his life. He called it Parker Luck. It was an ironic poke at his bad luck, and that was such a mood right now. Maybe he had Sanders Luck. That would explain a lot.

The thing moved again and Virgil realized it was just a cat. 

Anxiety sucks. 

Virgil's stomach was twisted and he felt a bit nauseous. Sadly, this feeling was beginning to be familiar. 

The truck across the street started to move and Virgil started his work. His dirty, disgusting work. 

He wove an illusion around himself and started across the street as the truck lurched forwards. He hardened and pointed a shadow and it punctured the front wheel of the truck. He pulled it back so a larger hole was ripped and the wheel deflated, bringing the truck down. 

The back doors were thrown open and two men with guns got out to investigate. They passed him and Virgil expanded the illusion around him and pulled open the door to the truck. To anyone inside or outside, the door would look closed. 

Inside there was another person and, even though Virgil had his illusion and the man would not be able to hear him, he was as quiet as he could be. Just because he had superpowers didn't mean he wasn't still anxious about literally everything. 

Virgil's mission looked simple on paper: Use illusions and shadows to break into a government vehicle transporting Axicunum and then escape with no confrontation, hopefully, and leave the stolen government materials at the usual drop spot.

But of course everything had to go wrong. 

It was because of that stupid guard.

Not the one inside, no. He didn't move. But one of the ones that went outside came in and blocked the exit. His gun was pulled out, and Virgil really didn't want to get shot, or for anyone to get hurt.

Dang it.

"We got a flat tire," the guard said in a surprisingly high pitched voice for his burly body. "Don't know why yet. Stay on guard, you know that Anxiety person's been doing stuff like this."

The guard that had stayed inside stood up and Virgil saw the kid looked younger than him.

Double dang it.

"Should we check the 119, Robert?" The kid asked.

Triple dang it.

"Yeah," Robert said. "I'll stay here so if he's still here-" he raised his voice "-we're onto him."

This situation officially called for a dammit.

Virgil saw no way out of it. He released the illusions around him and crossed his arms as best he could with the case of Axicunum in it.

"Alright, you got me," he said.

The young guard let out a little shriek of surprise and fumbled for their gun. Virgil groaned internally. 

"Hey, no need for that," he said sharply, falling comfortably into the bad guy role. "Don't sweat it. I'll just take this case and be on my way, and we'll call it even, huh?"

Robert aimed the gun at Virgil. "Snowball's chance in hell, buddy. Put your hands up."

Instead, Virgil thrust his wrists out. "Here, just cuff me and get it over with."

Poor trusting Robert stepped forward, lowering the gun slightly while he pulled out the handcuffs. He grabbed Virgil's wrist and snapped it on one. 

Virgil smirked. "Wow, didn't know you were into that," and then punched Robert in the face. 

The man fell back clutching a bloody lip and Virgil quickly switched places with him so he was closest to the exit.

He glanced at the kid again. "You should consider going into a different line of work." Then he wrapped the illusions around him again and walked away.

The other guard that had left before was coming back to investigate what was shaking the van. Virgil slipped past him and ducked back into the alley. He looked back to see the young guard jump out of the van and scan the surrounding area, passing over the alley.

Virgil turned to the fire escape next to him and jumped onto it, climbing to the roof.

There he sat cross legged in the middle and commanded a shadow to break the cuff still attached to him.

He reflected on the fight and cursed himself. He hadn't needed to make that stupid joke, he could have just disappeared and been done with it. But Anxiety didn't care. Anxiety wanted to make it sting. 

Virgil wasn't sure if it was a good sign that he was referring to Anxiety as if it was a separate part of him. 

He sat for a few more minutes, not ready to get to the drop point. But his relaxation was interrupted when behind him a voice said "Drop it, Villain!" 

Fifth dang it of the night. 

He groaned and didn't turn. "Really not in the mood, Princey."

"That's the Fearless Prince to you," Princey snapped. 

"Sure thing, Prince Naveen," Virgil turned to face the hero, who was glaring at him, obviously offended. Virgil stood as the Fearless Prince started to talk. 

"Okay, first of all I am hurt. Naveen barely does anything and all he cares about is his money. I realize that was your point, but whatever. Also, what's with this stealing stuff? Why do you need...whatever that is." 

"I don't need it," Virgil said, before he caught himself. No, he couldn't let anything slip. 

"Then why do you take it, Charlie Frown?" The Prince crossed his arms and shot him what was probably supposed to be a terrifying glare, but looked more like one of those kittens that try to act tough when they're really not. 

Virgil changed the subject. "Hey, where's Honor? Doesn't he usually tag along with you?"

"Honor doesn't like fighting, and his powers are more suited for off the battle field. Me, however..." The Prince drew his sword and pointed it sat Virgil. "I must protect my kingdom and all that reside in it. And you, Villain, are a threat."

"Yeah, great speech," Virgil faked nonchalance, that bad guy persona slipping back on. "Practice it in front of the mirror much?" 

The Prince made an offended noise, that Virgil had taken to calling an 'offended Princey noise'. "No," he scoffed. 

Virgil formed a sword from shadows and it fell in his hand perfectly balanced. "All right," he huffed. "Let's get this over with." 

Virgil was never the one to make the first move when they dueled. And this time was no exception, as Princey lunged for him, Virgil sidestepping easily.

"C'mon, Princey, you can do better than that!" He called. Hopefully Princey would get angry which would cause him to make a mistake faster, which would get Virgil home faster. Hopefully Roman wouldn't be too insufferable when he got back, because he felt like sleeping for ten million years. 

"Shut up, Hot Topic," Princey growled, and yep, he was getting angry, Virgil could see it in the tension on his face. 

He smirked. "Aww, you think I'm hot."

Princey lunged again and this time Virgil blocked with his blade. Sparks flew. 

"Give up, Anxiety," Princey said, swinging his sword again, Virgil ducking under it. 

"And give in to you?" Virgil grinned. "Never."

The fight continued with no more talking, just lunging and blocking, parrying and stabbing. There was no contact other than the clang of the blades against each other.

Until Virgil stumbled and Princey's sword caught his arm, cutting him. He grit his teeth and stumbled away. He reached up to the cut and his fingers came away bloody. 

Goddammit. 

Luckily the cut was on his upper arm so his friends wouldn't see it. And it wasn't deep enough that he would bleed out, so as long as he bandaged it and avoided infections, he should heal up in a few days. 

He couldn't risk any more injuries, so this is where he should take his leave. He dispersed the sword, unable to use it anyways with his arm, and took a step back. 

"Sorry, Princey, but I've got somewhere to be," he announced. 

"If you think I'm going to let you-"

"Oh no of course not." Virgil raised his hands and a few shadows curled around Princey's limbs, holding him there. "That'll let you go once I'm far enough away. Sorry about all this." 

Then he jumped to the next roof, leaving the hero behind. 

The case swung at his side as he ran, and he tried to ignore both it and the burning pain in his arm. Hopefully he still had a few dollars in his pocket, because he wouldn't be able to sneak by Roman and care for this. He'd have to do it on a rooftop or something. 

The drop point was an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town, and if that wasn't cliche enough, the man who met him, the same man every time, was British and looked like Alfred from Batman. 

As usual, when Virgil saw him he asked questions. The same ones every time. Who knows, maybe one day they'd actually answer. 

"Who is your boss?" He asked. 

Zip. 

"Why does he need Axicunum?" 

Zero. 

"Why are you doing this?"

Nada. 

And then, as usual, after the man left, Virgil took off his mask and walked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary:
> 
> Virgil breaks into a government truck to steal some Axicunum and gets into a fight with one of the guards. The guard gets a handcuff on him and he makes a stupid joke, then uses an illusion to get out. a little bit later he's sitting on a roof berating himself for the whole thing, when The Fearless prince shows up. They fight and Virgil gets cut on the arm. He stops the fight by restraining the Prince and then runs to the drop point for the Axicunum. There he meets a man who takes the Axicunum but won't answer any of Virgil's questions that he asks.


	3. Roman

Roman Prince had always dreamed of being, well, a prince. He wanted to watch out for the little guy, protect the person in distress, become the prince charming from all those Disney movies he loved as a child.

It all started with the weird rock in the street.

Roman had been walking home from school when he stubbed his toe. After the customary swearing that comes with a stubbed toe, he looked down at what his foot had hit. 

The rock was stuck in some snow right next to the curb. It seemed like a regular rock, but there was an almost greenish glow coming from it. It looked like Kryptonite, or one of those radioactive things from cartoons that always burned the person/animal’s hair off.

So, of course, Roman picked it up.

When he got home, he immediately called Patton, his best friend since third grade. 

“Patton,” he had said, “you’ve gotta see this.”

Patton had come over immediately, and they both studied the rock. Neither of them were very good with science, so they were stumped. 

“I bet my friend Logan would know something,” Patton said after a few minutes. “He’s great at science, and he’s really smart.”

And so Logan came over. He studied the rock and declared that it kind of looked like Axicunum, an element discovered in 2003, but the green glow was new. 

He said he’d have to run some tests tomorrow to be certain, so they all went home and slept, or tried to. 

Roman was up until 2am. He didn’t know why, but he just wasn’t able to sleep. He wasn’t even tired. His Sleep was obviously at some kind of concert and was acting like a stereotypical teenager. Jeez, Sleep is such a brat!

...His imagination was getting away from him again. Probably lack of sleep.

There was an incessant buzzing in the back of his mind. It was just a background noise, nothing too bad, but loud enough to be annoying. 

He frowned at his ceiling. Why couldn’t he sleep?

When he finally fell asleep, his dreams were different. Usually his dreams featured him as the protagonist in many adventures, fighting dragon-witches, saving princesses and princes in distress, becoming a hero. But tonight his dreams were just swirling colours and what sounded like white noise or static. 

Roman woke up, heart pounding and head aching. 

Nothing seemed off until he grabbed his doorknob. He squeezed it and started to turn, but it came off in his hand. He opened his hand in surprise and the knob dropped from his palm, caved in fingerprints in the metal.

“Wha-” he gasped. He bent down and picked it up, matching his fingers to the imprints. 

His cell phone rang from his nightstand and he lunged for it, grabbing it more delicately than he would have. 

“Hello?”

“Heya, kiddo,” came Patton’s voice. “Uh, weird questions, but have you noticed anything...strange lately?” 

“Is it happening to you, too?” Roman asked, looking at the doorknob in his hand. “Because I was freaking out.”

“Yes! Oh, thank goodness, I was afraid I was the only one,” Roman could hear Patton’s grin over the phone. “I cut myself on this nail that sticks up next to my door, and then I was about to clean off the blood from it and it was gone.”

“I grabbed my doorknob and it fell off, and i’m pretty sure I crushed it,” Roman said. “What do you think happened?”

“Can we meet at your house? I’m going to call Logan to see if anything happened to him. I have a theory,” 

Patton’s theory was the rock.

“The rock?” Roman asked, as if Patton hadn’t just said it.

“Yeah, the rock,” Patton replied.

“You think the rock did this?” Logan asked.

“It makes sense, doesn’t it?” Patton said excitedly. “Come on, none of this was happening before Roman showed us the rock, don’t you think that could have something to do with it?”

“Wait, what happened to you, Logan?” Roman asked. 

“I woke up like usual, and then I opened my laptop and it exploded,” Logan explained. 

“Do you know what this means?” Roman asked excitedly. 

Logan raised an eyebrow, a feat Roman was not at all jealous of.

“I want to be the Terrific Moth!” Patton interrupted. 

“...What?” Logan asked again.

“I don’t know, I saw it on this name generator thing when I was writing the Adventures of Lord Mysterious Knuckles.”

“What?” Logan asked yet again.

“It’s a long story,” Patton and Roman said in unison.

Logan raised his eyebrows. “Okay...Um, so maybe, if you were to become a superhero, you might want to consider other options as a name.”

“The Fearless Prince!” Roman announced. 

“What?” Logan said for a third time.

“That’ll be my name,” Roman said, grinning. “It’s great for a superhero.”

“I want to be Justice!” Patton said. “I’ve always liked that name.”

“That could be a good name,” Logan said. “But, are you really planning on becoming superheroes? Do you have any idea how?”

“Relax, Microsoft Nerd, I’ve been reading comic books since I was 5,” Roman said proudly. “I’m practically Batman already! Also, have you seen Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog?”

“Dr. who?”

“Dr. Horrible! He was played by Neil Patrick Harris, and he was beautiful. Technically he was a villain, but I still love him.”

“Alright, I am going to pretend I understood anything you just said, and continue. Objectively, you two could not become superheroes.”

“But-”

Logan held up his hand to cut Patton off. “Let me finish. You two have no experience fighting anything. You remember what happened with ‘Captain Magno’ last year.”

Everyone winced at the reminder.

“Okay, sure, but we could-”

Logan spoke louder to be heard over Roman. “So, I will teach you some skills that could help you.”

“Come on, Logan, we-” Roman paused. “Wait, what?”

“I have taken martial arts since first grade, Roman,” Logan pushed his glasses up on his nose. “And I’m not sure, but I assume you have not done any, and I know Patton hasn't. So I will instruct you on how to defend yourselves.”

Logan still wasn’t a fan of the whole superhero idea, he explained, but he knew how stubborn Patton was, and he assumed Roman was as well, so if they were going to do it, he was going to help them not die.

Roman and Patton were fast learners, and Logan said that, after six months, they were about the level he was after two years. Of course, he had been younger then, but it was still a surprise. 

Roman suspected that they wouldn’t be anywhere near the level they were at if they hadn’t gotten the powers. 

Ever since the first day, he had noticed that he was more flexible then before, and he was more graceful. He had seen it in Patton, too. Before, Patton had been clumsy, but now he barely ever tripped.

They trained every time they could, after school, weekends, in summer, and even if Logan was busy, Roman still practiced, anxious to get to the streets. 

They did more testing of their powers, and found amazingly awesome powers. 

Patton told them about these colors and emotions he had been feeling. It sounded to Logan like synesthesia, but Roman immediately diagnosed it as empathic abilities. To Patton, every emotion had a different color, and depending on how strong the feelings were, the more real the colors looked. 

Logan worked with a new laptop and found he could manipulate code and get into anything when he accidentally hacked into the governor's personal email. He played around some old Walkman's of his parents and found he could also move the wires around to get them to explode. The result of that experiment led to him getting a new rug in his room. 

Roman found he had an affinity for martial arts, and coupling that with his strength he was leaving the others with bruises a lot. He was still caught up with the idea of being a Prince, and of course to be a prince you have to have a sword! so he saved up and when the Renaissance Fair came to town he bought one of those real ones that they sell for some reason. He also found he could pick up a car when he challenged Patton to a game of soccer and the ball rolled under his mom's car. 

Finally, after a year and two months of training, Logan proclaimed they were ready.

“Really?” Roman tried to catch his breath. They had just been practicing sparring, and both Roman and Patton were able to beat Logan, a black belt, now. 

“You’re not as good as you could be,” Logan said. “There’s always more you can learn. But i’ve taught you all I know.”

“Yeah!” Patton cheered. “Now let’s get costumes!”

Roman grinned. “I’ve got this.”

Soon, Roman and Patton were standing in Logan’s living room, posing as if someone were taking a picture of them. Google is always taking photos, after all.

Logan eyed them. “What is this?”

Roman was wearing a white shirt with a red sash and cape, and a masquerade mask, with black pants and brown boots. 

Patton was wearing a blue shirt with a grey cape and a simple black mask, with jeans and tennis shoes. 

“No capes,” Logan said.

“Incredibles,” Patton muttered.

“What?” Logan asked. “You know what, never mind. Anyway, do you remember what happened to Thunderhawk? And what about Karma?”

Roman winced. “I liked Karma,” he said quietly.

“Thunderhawk?” Patton whispered.

“Jet engine,” Roman whispered back.

“Is this the Incredibles? Seriously?” Patton grinned.

“Hey, I’m talking,” Logan said. “Statistically, capes are not satisfactory.” 

“Okay, Microsoft Turd,” Roman started. “This is my vision.”

“Do you want your vision to get both you and Patton killed?” Logan raised an eyebrow, a feat Roman was still not at all jealous of. “Also, you use that Microsoft Nerd or Turd nickname all the time. How about some more originality?”

“Ugh, fine,” Roman groaned dramatically.

And so began the tale of the Fearless Prince, his sidekick Honor (he decided against Justice), and their tech support, Logic.

At first, they focused on smaller crimes- ATM robberies, muggings, bank robberies-just to get their footing. They didn’t encounter anything bigger than that until about a month after they started.

“An alarm has gone off at the Fort Myers Laboratories,” Logan-Logic- spoke through a headset. “An unknown person has entered the labs. I’m hacking the cameras now.”

“We’re on our way,” Roman-The Prince- responded. 

“Oh my gosh, this is our first big gig!” Patton-Honor-squealed. “This is it, guys!”

They had already been featured on some local news stations, excited for the return of superheroes, but they’d never stopped any big-time crimes. 

The lab was a rectangular building that looked slightly unarmed, though Roman was sure it had all the state of the art security systems. 

“Okay, what’s our entrance point?” 

“Just a second.” Roman heard the clacking of keys from Logan’s side. “East side of the building, second floor window. That's closest to the breach.”

“Got it,” Patton said. 

Inside the building was an every quiet. There was no sign of damage, and everything seemed fine. 

The minute Roman opened the door though, alarms blared. 

“Logic, what's happening?” Patton yelled. 

“The alarms appear to still be operational,” Logan relayed. “I assumed the perpetrator would have deactivated them, but I was wrong. Just a second.”

A few keyboard clicks, then Logan groaned.

“I can't get access without a connection to the server,” he said. “Ro- er, Prince, could you get that bead I gave you on one of those computers?”

In front of them were tables of computers like a computer lab. 

“On it,” Roman said, pulling out the bead. 

“What is this?”

Roman turned to the unknown voice and saw a person dressed in all black in the doorway leading further into the lab. 

“Are you the villain that set of the alarms in this laboratory?” Roman demanded. 

The person in black-although it was more of a dark grey, actually, looked away. “I mean, maybe? Yes?”

“Then we must take you down, Villain!” Roman announced dramatically. 

“Hey, aren't you that Prince dude from the news? Aren't you located in Miami, or something?”

“We help anyone in need!” Patton declared. 

The person in black was gripping a grey briefcase, presumably with what they had stolen in it, Roman thought. It was kind of hard to think with those alarms blaring, though. 

“Prince, get the bead on one of the computers!” Logan cut in. 

Right.

Roman swung an underhand throw and the bead flew through the air. It landed on a computer and stuck to the screen, defying all laws of physics and gravity. 

“Got it!” Logan said triumphantly. A second later the alarms cut out. 

The person in black narrowed their eyes. “What was that?” They demanded. “What did you just do?”

“Heck if I know,” Roman shrugged.

“It’s a hacker-ball I think,” Patton said.

“A hacker...who are you people?”

‘I am the Fearless Prince and this is my sidekick, Honor.”

The distinctive Apple text ‘ding’ rang through the room.

Roman frowned. He and Patton has left their phones with Logan, so it couldn’t be theirs. And besides, Patton still had a Samsung, for some reason, and Roman’s ringtone was that Mamba dance thing.

The villain pulled out a phone and was checking the text. It obviously was not good news, as they scowled at the screen. They said something under their breath, then looked up. 

“Look, this has been fun, but I’ve gotta bounce. So, if you will kindly step aside…”

“No way, Jose,” Patton said. “You’re going to be put whatever you took back, and we’ll...let you go. And don’t do it again!”

The villain looked genuinely sorry. “I would, but...I can’t.”

“And why not?” Roman demanded.

They avoided the question. “This is where i take my leave.” They shot Roman and a sarcastic two-finger salute, and then disappeared.

“Where’d they go?” Patton asked. They scanned the room, but the villain was gone.

“Police en route,” Logan said. “ETA is less than two minutes.”

“Are we staying or leaving?” Patton asked. 

“I would advise leaving,” Logan replied.”They may assume you are the cause of the disturbance.”

“Got it. See you back home, Logic.”


	4. Patton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning!!  
> Patton's roommate says some homophobic stuff  
> Virgil has a panic attack  
> Descriptions of blood and a wound
> 
> If you need to, skip from "he turned to walk away again, when another person went running past." Summary at bottom.

Patton was always enthusiastic about his friend’s ideas. Talyn had some great ways to make him look fabulous with makeup, Terrence was always having random crazy ideas that might never actually work, but gosh darn it if Patton wasn’t going to encourage him, and Logan was always in a book, trying to learn, and Patton was really proud of them all.

Roman always had the most ideas. He came up with a new one every five minutes, it seemed. The ideas ranged from play plots to how to make an origami star fighter.

Roman was the one who came up with the idea of them becoming superheroes, and of course Patton went along with it. What kid didn't dream of being like Superman or Captain America? 

It was obviously a dream come true for Roman. He was over the moon with his new powers, and he was already designing their costumes. 

Logan wasn't that into it. He had adamantly refused when Roman brought it up, even with both Patton and Roman using their puppy dog eyes. Roman had once said that Patton's puppy dog eyes were the most formidable opponent he'd ever faced, especially with Patton's freckles and doe-brown eyes. And Patton thought Roman was adorable. But even faced with that, Logan was firm. 

Eventually he agreed to teach them and be their tech support. 

Soon Patton realized that his powers weren't exactly suited for what Roman had in mind. Roman was more than happy to be a solo act, and Patton and Logan were equally happy to support him from the sidelines. 

With that Anxiety guy running around, Patton was worried for the Prince of Miami. But there wasn't anything to do except watch from the sidelines, cheering him on, and worrying.

Patton was the cheerful one, the one who cracked jokes and lifted spirits. If Roman or even Logan knew he was worrying about something, then they could all fall apart, and Patton didn't want that. He couldn't imagine what his life would be like without their friend group. 

When Virgil started hanging out with them, they all became a little more guarded. Before they had been able to joke around a bit about their 'nightly activities', but when Virgil joined, Logan insisted they didn't get him involved. 

"We don't want Anxiety or some other so called villain to use our friends or family against us," he explained. 

Patton agreed. He'd only known Virgil for a few weeks, but he already wouldn't have known what to do without his deadpan humor and banter. 

Patton was a champion worrier. If worrying was an Olympic sport, he'd have the record gold medals. He also had slight anxiety, so he sometimes had hyper attention, where he noticed a lot of things, maybe without even knowing it. 

So it wasn't a surprise to him when he started noticing that Virgil was avoiding them. 

Patton had known Roman for ___ years, and Logan for __. He'd only known Virgil for a year, but he already knew he would die for his dark strange son. 

(Yes, he knew he was barely a year older than Virgil, but he still felt very protective towards the younger boy. Whenever Virgil thought they weren't looking, he let down some kind of wall and let out some kind of pain that seemed to radiate in his eyes, filling the air with dark and ugly greens and reds and Patton wanted to keep him from anymore.)

Virgil avoiding them had happened once last year, when he and Roman had gotten into a fight and Virge needed to cool off, so he stayed away for a week. That week had been torture for all of them. After getting used to Virgil's presence, the lack of it seemed unnatural. 

But after asking Roman and Logan, he found that Virgil hadn't had a fight with either of them. 

So why was he pulling away?

Patton caught up to him in their shared class. Every Tuesday at 2:15 they had sociology with Professor Jacobson. 

"Hey! Virge!" He called. 

The darkly dressed person in question turned and waited for Patton to catch up. 

"Hey, Pat."

He sounded tired, but he still smiled in greeting. 

"How's it going, kiddo?" Patton linked arms with Virgil. 

"Only a year older than me," Virgil sighed. "It's going pretty good." 

"Hey, up dog," Patton grinned at him. 

"What?" 

"Up dog!"

"What's up dog?" Virgil stopped. "Oohhh, I get it now." He laughed and shot Patton a genuine smile. 

Patton was relieved that Virgil was still at least a little normal-not in that way, but Virgil normal. Okay, he was laughing at one joke, but Patton was an optimist.

They sat next to each other in the lecture hall, Virgil on the end and Patton next to a nice girl with fire truck red hair. 

"Settle down, everyone," their teacher called pretty uselessly, since no one was actually talking. "We're starting a new project today."

"Oh no," Virgil groaned quietly.

“Aww come on, kiddo, it won't be that bad," Patton whispered.

"The project is to create a presentation with a five minute speech, a visual, some kind of technology, and a three page paper about mental health. You have 8 weeks to do so, starting today after class." Mr Jacobson adjusted his glasses. "I want these presentations to be substantial, intellectual and beautiful." 

Virgil buried his head in his arms and groaned again.

Patton smiled fondly at him. 

Mr. Jacobson started his lecture and Patton took notes. Virgil didn't lift his head, so Patton decided to give him notes too. 

Virgil had never told them, but Patton had figured out that he never really slept. He wasn't sure if it was insomnia, or something else, but Virgil did not get 9 hours. 

Patton hated seeing his friends sad or hurt. Even as a child, whenever Roman fell on the playground and scraped his knee, Patton would cry along with the younger boy. And now that he was an empath, he was sometimes bombarded by the emotions of everyone around him. Sometimes it was muted, and he could barely sense anything, but other days he almost couldn’t tell how he was feeling from the rush of other’s emotions. Right now, it was subtle, but he could sense fear and tiredness from Virgil.

He could understand the tiredness, but what was making Virgil afraid? Was it the project? But the fear felt too strong to be just for a college assignment. The colors were too dark, almost tangible.

The class passed uneventfully. When Professor Jacobson dismissed them, Virgil stood up, not even looking at Patton, and hurried out. Patton jumped up, confused, and followed him.

“Virge!” He called.

Virgil looked back with a worried expression. 

“Where’re you going, kiddo?” Patton asked nervously. 

“I have to do something,” Virgil responded quietly. 

Patton frowned. “You okay? Need any help?”

A new surge of fear filled the air, then faded a bit. “No, no, I’m good.” Virgil turned away, eyes on the floor. 

“Okay,” Patton said slowly. “You can talk to me if you need any help, you know that, right?” 

Virgil gave him a small smile. “Yeah, thanks, Pat.”

He turned to walk away again, when another person went running past, bumping into Virgil’s shoulder, sending him to the ground.

“Sorry!” The person yelled, not even stopping. Probably late to a class or something.

“Virgil! Are you okay?” Patton rushed over to him. He grabbed Virgil’s arm to help him up, but he hissed in pain and pulled away. Patton pulled his hand away to see some red on his hands. “Oh my gosh!”

“I’m fine!” Virgil exclaimed. “It’s nothing!”

“Nothing?” Patton stared incredulously. “You’re bleeding!” 

“It’s just a scratch,” Virgil insisted. “I’m fine.” 

The colors around him were a dirty yellow, the feeling of someone who was lying. 

Patton looked into Virgil’s scared eyes and made a decision. 

“No, it's not.” He said firmly. “It bled through your hoodie.”

“Arm scratches always bleed more?” Virgil tried, trying to subtly inch away, Patton noticed. 

“How did it happen anyways?” Patton asked, following Virgil’s tiny movements with his own, not letting more space come between them. 

Virgil grabbed at his hoodie sleeves, pulling them over his hands, which were shaking. The air was full of heavy purple, the warning of an oncoming panic attack. 

“Never mind,” Patton said quickly. “Can I touch you?”

Virgil let out a shaky breath and nodded slowly. 

“Alright, kiddo,” Patton led him out of the middle of the hallway to the wall. “Can you breathe with me? In, and out.” He demonstrated, sucking in air and letting it go, watching Virgil copy. 

After a few minutes Virgil was breathing normally and the air was back to the slight fear Virgil always had around him from his anxiety.

“You good, kiddo?” Patton didn't want to rush Virgil, but that cut seemed pretty bad. 

He nodded wordlessly. 

“Alright,” Patton said, “I'm going to help you with this cut, okay?”

Virgil didn't protest or say anything, so Patton pulled him up and headed for his room. Hopefully James wouldn't be there. 

James was there. 

He sat on his bed, a greasy pizza box next to him, clothes scattered around. His messy half of the room contrasted with Patton’s kind of organized half. 

As Patton brought Virgil in, he looked up. 

“You’re back,” he said around a mouthful of pizza. 

Patton nodded. “I'll be out soon. Just need to grab something.”

James scoffed. “Whatever, I'm leaving anyway.” He stood up and passed them in the doorway. “Nice to see you without your fag boyfriend,” he said to Virgil. 

Virgil’s breath hitched and Patton glared. 

“That's enough, James,” he said firmly. 

“Whatever,”

Patton ducked into the bathroom and grabbed his First Aid kit. Then he pulled Virgil out of the room and towards his.

Virgil handed him the key as they got closer, and Patton let them in. Roman wasn’t there, but the window was open, letting in some of that late summer coolness. 

Patton was very confused when Virgil pulled off his hoodie. The cut seemed too clean to have been an accident, almost like a knife cut. He was dying to ask, but he knew Virgil would avoid the question, possibly lying and bringing up his anxiety.

So he just cleaned and wrapped the wound and worried.

And if he used a bit of his powers to help the cut heal faster? Well, no one really needed to know about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary:  
> A person bumps into Virgil on accident, reopening the cut Roman gave him. Patton asks him how it happened and Virgil has a panic attack. Patton helps him calm down and then brings him to his dorm room to help with the cut. James, Patton's homophobic roommate says something about Virgil and Roman and Patton kicks him out. Pat helps Virgil with the cut, secretly using his healing power.


	5. Logan

Logan hated emotions. They were icky and complicated, and he had better ways to spend his days. 

But seeing one of his friends hurt, and them lying to him about it? That made him angry.

Not at Virgil, no. But something was causing the younger boy to be so stressed-and don’t think Logan hadn’t seen that bruise on his cheek, no matter how much concealer he used-and that made him mad.

Logan looked at everything logically. He needed the facts, the cold hard truth in everything. So step one was research. 

He gave Roman the slip and went to the library-a much better alternative to the party Roman was trying to drag him to. Too much social interaction. 

Searching Virgil’s name brought him to a Facebook page. The last post was from 5 years ago. 

Nothing too suspicious.

He scrolled through the posts, recognizing Virgil in a few of the photos, though most were landscapes or other people, none of whom Logan recognized. Mostly two people, a teenager with the same eyes and hair as Virgil, and an older woman, about 30, with dark hair. Maybe his mother?

Logan went back to the search page results, and scrolled down a bit. The next link that popped out at him was an article.

The headline read, Another Missing in the Miami Area.

He clicked on the link and it brought him to a newspaper article from 5 years ago-around the same time the Facebook page stopped posting things.

Thomas Sanders, 12, was reported missing by older brother, Virgil Sanders, this past Tuesday. Sanders reported that his brother was heading to a friend’s house, but neither arrived or went back home.

“He never mentioned anything to me about running away or anything like that,” said Joan Stokes, the friend in mention. “He always seemed very happy. He and Virgil were very happy with Valyrie.”

Thomas and Virgil Sanders have been living with a family friend after the death of their parents in a car crash two months ago. 

We were unable to get any other comments from friends or family.

Logan remembered that story. It had been awhile ago, and he’d forgotten it, but now the details were coming back to him. Most had written the boy off as a runaway, and the story had been forgotten. He also remembered that this disappearance had caused many protests for the police to do more.

I had no idea, Logan thought. Virgil had mentioned a brother, and talked about him as if he was still there, so he'd never even considered this possibility.

Opening a new tab, he searched Thomas Sanders.

The first link was a list of missing people in Florida someone had compiled on tumblr. The url was missing-in-fl.

At the top was a key.

Northern Florida  
Southern Florida  
The Keys  
Confirmed Runaway  
+CONFIRMED KIDNAPPING  
+the ones you need 

Logan frowned. This was...strangely convenient. Also, what did ‘the ones you need’ mean?

He grabbed his yellow legal pad and flipped to the last page that was blank. He started jotting down the names that were in all lowercase and marking what gender they were described as, and where they were from.

Quinn Reeds - N.FL - 1986  
Lija Harlet - S.FL * 1999  
Aaron Blewett - N.FL - 2001  
Reason Henwood - S.FL * 2012  
\-----------  
Houston Killam - N.FL -   
Miles Pert - S.FL -  
Wilder Mitchill - N.FL -  
\---------------  
Ruban Galette - S.FL - 1995  
Cameron Jones - N.FL - 1988  
\-------------  
Elise Robles - S.FL * 1973  
\-----------  
Thomas Sanders - S.FL - 2013  
Zephyr Beacon -N.FL - 2004  
Rose Fletcher - N.Fl * 1998  
\-------------  
Emily Drewry - S.FL *  
\---------------  
Jordan James - N.FL -  
\-----------------  
Meribah Pullin - S.Fl -  
Landon Petro - N.FL -  
\----------------  
April Marsh - N.FL *

At the bottom of the list there was a message.

I’ve given you the clues. Get to it, Sherlock.

Logan looked up and scanned the room. There was a group of students in the corner reading and talking, a few people studying, nothing out of the ordinary. No one was paying attention to him.

When he looked back at the screen, the message was gone. 

He scanned the list and froze at one of the names. 

Zephyr Beacon.

Wasn’t that…

He picked up his phone and hit call on one of his contacts. 

“Yo,”

“Remy, I need to call in a favor. Your uncle still works at that prison, right?”

Ditching Roman again was easy. But then he was confronted by Patton.

“Logan!” He exclaimed. “ I haven’t seen you in forever! We should do something.”

Logan grimaced. “That would be satisfactory, but I have a thing I have to do.”

Patton’s face fell. “Oh. Well, maybe some other time.” And the smile was back. 

“Yes, of course. I truly am sorry for ‘blowing you off.’”

“Hey, look at you with the modern slang words!” Patton grinned.

“Thank you. I guess it is pretty ‘lit.’ Did I use that right?” Logan smiled a bit at his friend.

“You are on fire today!” Patton exclaimed.

Logan groaned. Another pun? And since when did Patton’s smile make him feel warm and fuzzy inside?

Oh no.

Feelings.

Logan looked away. “I really should go,” he said regretfully. “I have to be there at a certain time, so…”

“Oh yeah, no problem.” Patton stepped aside. “Have pun with whatever you’re doing!”

“Thank you.” Logan ignored the pun.

Did Logan have feelings for Patton? He’d have to run some tests and get some data together. He wasn’t going to dwell on this now. He couldn’t be distracted. Not by Patton’s smooth brown hair, or his deep brown eyes…

No. Stop it. 

‘Hey, poindexter!”

He looked up to see Remy waving at him. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Remy greeted.

“Hello, Remy.” Logan smiled back.


	6. Patton

Patton was worried about his friends. 

Roman was his same flamboyant self, but Logan and Virgil were definitely acting strange. 

Virgil had the most obvious change. He was more withdrawn, shying away from verbal banter with Roman were before he fired back, and zoning out a lot. And that cut too! Patton still didn't know what that was about. 

Logan his it better. Really, the only change was more avoiding anything to do with his friends in favor of the library, and a slight tightness in his face.

And don't think he hadn't seen the concealer under Logan's eyes, and the actual bags underneath Virgil's edgy eye shadow.

“I can’t believe the nerve!” Roman had complained loudly. “The nerd just brushed me off like I was nothing!” 

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he just had something important to do,” Patton reassured him. 

But he was still worried. 

No matter how much Roman bothered him, Logan would never just abandon him with no warning, or without a good reason.

A few days later, the worry spiked again.

Patton hid that worry behind a pun and a smile, as he always did. He watched Logan through the window and saw him getting in a car with a guy.

Maybe it’s just a boyfriend, he thought.

The thought sunk his heart, but he wasn’t sure why.

But of course, with Logan gone, Patton would be able to snoop. And snoop he did, and luckily he was good at it.

He started at the desk. Logan had a habit of just leaving everything on it, and that was the perfect place for answers.

The desk was cluttered, as expected, with notes from classes mostly, and textbooks and leisure reading books. Hidden under all that was Logan’s yellow legal pad that he carried everywhere. The old one, to be precise.

Logan probably went through 5 of these a month, and it was the best place to find clues.

Patton flipped through pages of notes and math problems to the last page. Nothing useful, until said last page.

On the top of the page were some notes and reminders scribbled sloppily in Logan’s handwriting, but so unlike Logan’s usual neatness. He was obviously in a rush.

Find connections to V.S.

the ones you need????

CALL REMY

“I’ve given you the clues. Figure it out, Sherlock.”

Underneath those was a list of names, all sounding vaguely familiar to Patton. Next to the names was a N.FL or a S.FL and a - or a *, presumably for gender.

Two names were underlined.

Thomas Sanders and Zephyr Beacon. 

Patton frowned. Virgil’s last name was Sanders, and Beacon sounded like...him.

He scanned through the list again, but no other names were called out to in that way. 

As he looked at it, the dots and dashes caught her eye. He wrote them down next to each other horizontally. 

-*-* --- -- * / --* * - / -- *

He and Talyn had learned Morse Code in order to talk to each other during class and send flashlight messages across the street when they were younger. So the dots and dashes meant something to him.

COME GET ME

What did that mean?

The doorknob turned, and Patton leapt back, trying to look innocent as possible, but it was just Leo, Logan’s roommate. 

He wrote down what the Morse Code said, and then realized that he was holding a pen. And he was supposed to be snooping. Rule Number 1 of snooping: Leave No Evidence.  
Patton wasn’t one for swearing, but crap.

He glanced at Leo, then back at the paper. He groaned softly.

“Dang it.”

He wrote a quick note. Sorry for snooping! Don’t be angry at me if you recognize this handwriting!

Patton wrote down the two underlined names on her hand and then left the room as quickly as possible.

He went to Roman and Virgil’s dorm next. He really didn’t feel like dealing with James tonight. The door opened as soon as he knocked.

“Patton! Oh, thank Julie Andrews, you’re here!” Roman exclaimed. “You have to help me, come here!”

“What’s going on?” Patton asked, following him in.

“He thinks Grease is better than Wicked,” Virgil said from where he sat on his bed. “Which is obviously wrong. I mean, have you heard Defying Gravity?”

“Of course I have,” Roman scoffed. “Idina Menzel is a goddess. But have you heard Summer Loving?”

“Yeah, but what about What Is This Feeling?”

‘Guys, guys, how about you ‘tell me more, tell me more’?” Patton suggested.

“Now that’s humor,” Roman exclaimed, glaring at Virgil. 

Maybe this was a good thing? Virgil was participating, this was a great debate!

“Wicked is a delicate political statement on racism,” Virgil argued. ‘They all discriminate her for her green skin, just like people have with African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, etc. all throughout history!”

“But think of the love story!” Roman groaned. 

“Wicked has a love story too, and she doesn’t have to change the way she looks and acts for them to be together,” Virgil shot back.

Roman gasped dramatically. “How dare you! She change out of love... yeah, that does sound bad now.”

“Who would I be in Wicked?” Patton interrupted. 

“Glinda,” Roman and Virgil said in unison. 

“And I’d be Fierro!” Roma proclaimed. 

“London would be Dr. Dillamond,” Virgil said. 

“Definitely,” Patton agreed. “Hey, Virgil, what’s your brother’s name?”

Virgil looked surprised, and a guarded look appeared in his eyes. “Uh...why?”

“No reason,” Patton shrugged. “Just, I think you’d be Elphaba, and your brother would be Nessarose then.”

Vega smiled. “Yeah, Thomas does kinds seem like a Nessarose.”

Thomas. Virgil’s brother’s name was Thomas. Again, Patton didn’t like to swear, but crap. 

Thomas Sanders  
Zephyr Beacon

What did it mean?

“Hey, Patty, you okay?” Roman’s voice cut through his fog.

Patton looked up. “Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m good.”

“You were out in La La Land,” Virgil told him.

“Another good movie,” Roman said.

“I was just thinking of who would be the Wizard.” Patton reassured them. A lie.

Roman frowned. “Hmm. That’s a tough one.” 

“Yeah, I don’t really know anyone that fits the Wizard’s personality,” Patton said. 

“Maybe that kid from Social Studies, uh, Lindsey Valle?” Virgil suggested. “She’s always saying that history was written by the winners. That sounds like something the Wizard would say.”

“True,” Roman agreed. “She rants a lot.”

“A very Wizard-y move,” Patton grinned. 

“Well, I think we all agree, Wicked is way better,” Vega said. “So I win.”

Roland sighed. “Fine. I concede. But I still like the songs in Grease better.”

“How about we watch some Grease?” Patton suggested. “And Virgil, you can point out everything that is not that good?”

“Yeah, sure."


	7. Logan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't get bold or italics to work for this chapter, sorry!

Everything was falling into place for Logan. All the clues he’d found on Virgil, everything on Thomas, the ones you need, his interview with Averill Beacon...It all made sense now.

He was back in his room, ignoring Tara, who was on the phone, and searching for his legal pad. Could’ve sworn he left it....

Here.

He pulled it out from under the piles of papers and flipped to the last page. His eyes were drawn to the new additions at the bottom in the tiny bit of space he had left. 

-*-* --- -- * / --* * - / -- * COME GET ME

Sorry for snooping! Don’t be angry at me if you recognize the handwriting!

Was that Patton’s handwriting? Why was he snooping?

The code was a note from the person behind it all. The person responsible for all the villains and attacks, responsible for Averill Beacon’s imprisonment, and all the rest too.

/“If I ever meet that bastard again, I’ll kill him,” Averill growled.

“Do you think that what happened to you is what happened to everyone else?” Logan asked. 

“Of course,” Averill said. “I feel sorry for the poor guy being ‘Anxiety’ or whatever his name is.”

“Is there anything you could tell me that would help me find the person behind this?”

Averill studied Logan’s face. “You’re worried a friend is being blackmailed?”

Logan shook his head, ignoring the weird look Remy was giving him. “I didn’t say that.”

“It’s all over your face, sweetheart.” Averill grinned. “I know his alias, the name he goes by when he’s out. Nobody believed me, cause, well, the whole attacking Miami thing.”

Logan leaned closer.

“It was-”/

“Hey, Logan?”

Tara. They hardly ever talked, what did she want? “Yes?”

“Just wanted to let you know that guy you hang out with-uh, Pat something? He was looking at your stuff.” She shrugged. “I don’t if you were aware, but it didn’t look like it. He was looking kinda suspicious.”

“Oh, thank you, Tara.” Logan nodded at her. 

So it was Patton. Why did Patton know Morse code? Why was Patton snooping through his stuff? Could Patton be a double agent? Could- 

No, he was just getting paranoid, probably from the sleep deprivation. 

He had to make sure he was right, he couldn’t throw accusations willy-nilly. He had to look at it logically, get the facts-for lack of a better word- straight.

Logan pulled open her laptop and pulled up the files he’d saved from fights years past. He clicked on the most recent one and played it, trying to find the best place to get a view of Anxiety’s face.

It was pretty hard, he mostly kept his face hidden with the hood, and he didn’t find a good shot in the latest one, but after a bit more searching, he found one in a fight from last month.

It had been windy that day, and Anxiety’s hood had fallen off after a particularly strong gust came right after being pushed back by Roman. 

Logan paused the video as soon as his face was in focus and studied it. A few of the most important parts of the face were covered, thanks to the mask, but he could see the basic face shape and it did look eerily similar to Virgil. 

He ran the video, hearing the Villain yell, “Give it up, Princey! You can’t stop me!”

It sounded familiar. Logan thought, then remembered where he had heard those words before. 

“Give it up!” Virgil laughed. “You can’t stop me!”

“Virgil!” Patton giggled. “Stop it!”

“Seriously, man, give it back,” Roman demanded.

Virgil held the theater nerd’s phone higher. “Never! Who’re you texting?”

That conversation hadn’t been very important, but the words were almost exactly the same. And Logan had always thought Anxiety’s voice sounded familiar, but brushed it off as him just having a very common sounding voice.

/Come get me. /

Obviously the man behind this was expecting him, watching him. Was he watching right now? Did he know? Who was he?

Averill Beacon was about to tell him, but their time had ended and he was dragged away. The answers were right in front of him, but they were smashed by fate, or whatever higher power, if there was one, that controlled Logan’s life.

Come get me, the ones you need, I’ve given you the clues, Sherlock.//

He was toying with them, dropping blatant hints, waiting to see if he was smart enough to put it together, laughing when he hit a dead end.

...He really did need some sleep.

It took awhile for him to sleep, paranoid thoughts still invading his mind, but eventually he did, and when he did there were no bad dreams like he half expected. 

Tomorrow, he decided, there would be some revelations. Tomorrow he would confront Virgil, and get his help. They needed each other’s help, and Roman and Patton would either come along or get left behind. This was too important to worry about the other's feelings.

This was war.

The next day he texted everyone to meet in Roman and Virgil’s room. It was the most private place he could think of, even if he did suspect there might be someone watching them. 

Patton responded almost immediately, despite it being at least 5:30 am, but Virgil and Roman took a bit longer to respond. They all agreed to meet after Virgil’s 1:30 class.

Logan debated over whether or not to tell Roman and Patton that he was going to reveal both their identities and Anxiety’s, but eventually decided not to. Roman would definitely object to this, he had a superhero complex that was fed by comics and stories of not revealing your identity because you had to protect your family and friends, and Patton...well, actually, Patton probably wouldn’t care, and he’d fondle Virgil once he heard the sob story.

So, telling anyone was a no. He’d reveal it all at once. 

Patton arrived a few minutes after Logan, having just come from volunteering at the local animal shelter, a job he did with the utmost enthusiasm. 

Virgil dropped in a few minutes after that, at 1:45, dropping his bag and notes and collapsing on the bed with a groan.

“Why is math so hard,” he groaned.

“It’s really not,” Logan said. “It follows specific patterns, if you know what to look for it’s very easy.”

Virgil gave him the stink eye from under the arm thrown over his face. “Easy for you to say, Professor Doom.”

“Anyways, Logan, why did you call us here?” Patton interrupted.

Logan took a deep breath. “I...am Logic.”

Roman shot up in his seat. “What are you-”

“Roman is the Prince,” Logan continued, “and Patton is Honor.”

Virgil sat up, casting wary looks at them, a guarded look in his eyes. 

“Uh, kiddo, what’re you doing?” Patton asked nervously.

“Virgil.” Logan said. “I’m sorry.”

“Why?” Roman demanded. “What the fu-”

“Virgil,” Logan said loudly, over Roman’s cursing, “is Anxiety.”

Roman took a moment to let that sink in, then screeched. “What?”

Virgil looked one second away from disappearing and never returning, when Logan spoke up again.

“Not by choice, though. I’m sure if Virgil had a choice he would be at home with his brother right now.”

“How-” Virgil frowned. He still looked quite spooked, like a deer in headlights. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. “How do you know that?”

“I’ve been doing some research,” Logan replied. “In 2003, Axicunum is discovered and a few months later, Zephyr Beacon disappeared, and was declared missing by his mother, Carla Beacon.”

“Zephyr Beacon?” Patton asked. His face was filled with recognition. 

“Yes. November of the next year, Averill Beacon attacks Miami using telekinesis from unknown sources. A hero, Black Light, shows up and stops him, and he ends up in custody.”

“What does this have to with him?” Roman growled.

“Calm down, Roman,” Patton said softly.

“A few months later, Miles Pert goes missing, and his sister McKenna Pert attacks a few days later, with weather control. Once again, Black Light stops her, but this time, as McKenna is dragged off, she screams something about a man who will kill her brother,”

Patton gasped, and Logan saw the last puzzle piece fall into place in his mind.

Roman’s face was still stormy, though he did seem to somewhat be getting it.

“This continues for a few years,” Logan continued, watching Roman warily. “Until 2009 when Black Light’s identity is revealed to the world by an anonymous hacker. Aubree Englert then hangs up her cape and moves to New York with her girlfriend and family.”

“What’s the point? Wrap it up,” Roman insisted.

“In 2014, Thomas Sanders is declared missing by his older brother, Virgil Sanders,” Logan said quietly. “A few months later, the heroes the Prince, Honor and their tech support Logic show up.”

“That’s us,” Patton said. He was looking at Virgil with worry on his face. “You okay?”

Virgil nodded wordlessly.

“A month after the heroes appear, Anxiety turns up and steals Plutonium from a Fort Myers lab. While interacting with the Prince, he gets a text and then disappears. Virgil, may I see your phone?”

Virgil pulled out his phone and handed it to Logan. 

“Password?”

“Uh, 1379,”

Logan unlocked the phone and pulled open the messages app. He ignored the first chat,their groupchat, labelled Mindscape and pulled open the one under it. 

It was labelled Blocked Number and as he opened it, he saw it was mostly one-sided.

“So...you’re being blackmailed to do this?” Roman asked.

Virgil looked away from him and Logan saw a single tear run down his cheek.

“I looked up to Black Light,” he started, voice shaking. “She was my hero growing up. Just like every other kid, I wanted to be her. I played hero and villain with my dad, I drew pictures, heck I had posters of her on my wall,” he laughed shakily. “Then her identity was revealed and she disappeared. Black Light was no more and Aubree Englert moved to New York.”

Patton moved to sit next to Virgil on the bed, and held his hand in support.

“Then my parents were in a car crash four years ago. I know, typical superhero origin story, right?” Virgil wiped his eyes. “But its not. We moved in with my parent’s friend Valyrie, and we were happy for awhile. But then Thomas went out to visit his friend Joan, and they didn’t make it to their house, or back to ours.”

Roman crossed his arms, but his face was less stormy. He looked a bit sorry for Virgil, actually.

“Then there were new heroes, the Prince, Honor, Logic...I thought maybe they could help. They would save the day, help anyone who needs it, be, well, heroes.” Virgil sniffed. “And then they texted me.”

“Who?” Patton said after a moment of silence. His voice was quiet and not prying.

“I don’t know,” Virgil said miserably. “They never gave me a name.”

“Virgil, are you okay?” Logan asked. He wasn’t good with emotions, but even he could tell that Virgil was hurting.

“Not really.”

Patton pulled Virgil into a side hug, rubbing his back as he started crying. Roman didn’t seem mad anymore, watching this. He looked conflicted, like he felt he should be mad, but he couldn’t.

“He told me what to do, and I did.” Virgil continued. “I wanted to tell you guys, but he said he was always watching and that he’d...kill Thomas if I told you.”

Patton was crying now as well. Between his usual empathy, and his empathic powers, he was probably feeling even more feelings than Virgil at this point.

“I’ve always tried to protect Thomas,” Virgil wiped his face again, his sleeve becoming soaked with salt water. “Sometimes I felt like I was holding him back from things, I was just so worried about losing him like I lost Mom and Dad, and the day I let him go to a sleepover, he’s kidnapped by a psychopath. I’m such a terrible brother,”

“No, you're not!” Patton wiped his eyes as well. “Kiddo, you’re not at fault for any of this. You couldn’t have done anything without the Axicunum,”

“If I hadn’t let him out-”

“No, no way, Jose, you are not blaming yourself,” Patton said stubbornly.

Suddenly Virgil’s phone dinged, and Logan looked down to see a new text from Blocked Number. 

Virgil sat up, eyes wide. “Was that…”

Logan wordlessly handed the phone over. The text read, I’m waiting for you.

Virgil stared at it. “What?”

Patton looked over his shoulder. “‘I’m waiting for you?’ What does that mean?”

“It means we have to find him,” Roman said. “The real Villain is waiting for us to come to him.”

“How?” Virgil sniffed. “We don’t know anything about him. How are we supposed to get to him? We don’t know where he is, or who he is, he probably has a lot of axicunum, he’ll be stronger than us-”

“Calm down, kiddo,” Patton said. “The Prince and Honor are here to help.” He grinned at Virgil, and after a minute, a small smile filled Virgil’s face.


	8. Patton

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Longest chapter so far!
> 
> Trigger warnings: Someone pulls a gun, little bit of violence.
> 
> This chapter is where it really starts getting good, with action and all that. Enjoy!

“I tried to trace the place of origin for these texts,” Logan said. “Whoever is behind this is smart. They bounced the signal on different satellites. There’s feedback from everywhere in the US, even some in Russia and Europe.”

“So there’s no hope?” Virgil asked.

“I never said that,” Logan said. “There could be another way, if there’s some kind of tracker on you, or even one of us.”

Patton frowned. Could there be trackers on them? Logan seemed pretty sure that the Villain was watching them, and Virgil had mentioned something about that. How could it have happened?

“Do you know of anything?” Logan was saying.

“No, I have no idea,” 

Patton needed to keep an eye on Virgil. He was obviously pretty shaken up, and he could tell that even without his empathic powers. Vigil hid it well, but Patton could see the signs.

“This is the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen,” Roman’s voice came from across the room, filled with disgust.

Patton looked up to see Roman holding up a black sweatshirt and a plain black mask.

“Where’s the style?” Roman exclaimed. “I knew it was plain from fighting you, but up close…” he shuddered.

Virgil looked out the window and crossed his arms. “I wasn’t exactly going for flashy,” he said quietly.

Roman winced. “Sorry, I didn’t…”

“It’s fine, Princey,” Virgil shoved his hands in his sweatshirt pockets. 

Patton frowned at them. They used to have a friendly dynamic, with their referential nicknames and friendly banter. But now there was an awkward tension between them. It was almost painful to watch them interact. 

Roman went back to examining Virgil’s costume. 

“Hey, what’s this?” He said. He was holding Virgil’s mask closer to his face. 

“What?” 

“There's a tiny logo here,” Roman pointed. “I can't see what it says, though.” 

“A logo?” Logan perked up. “Fantastic. Let me see.”

Roman passed it over and Logan studied it. He grabbed a convenient magnifying glass and held the mask up to it. 

“There's some tiny letters here,” Logan said. “I can’t make them out, though.”

“Let me see,” Patton said. Logan handed the mask and magnifying glass over, and Patton peered through. 

“I think it says Belial Industries,” he reported. “Anyone recognize that name?”

Roman grabbed his laptop and typed the name in. “It says they started up about 15 years ago.”

“What was their main export?” Virgil asked. “or product, or whatever.”

“Uh, light bulbs,” Roman reported. 

“Wait, when did you say they started?” Logan asked. 

“Uh, 2003.” 

“Like when Axicunum was discovered, 2003?” Logan asked. “Belial Industries must have something to do with all of this! It all makes sense!”

“It does?” Virgil muttered. 

Logan ignored him. 

“Virgil, where was that place you’d go to give them the stuff?” Roman asked. 

“The drop point?” Virgil said. “Can I see this?” He pulled Roman's laptop towards him and pulled up Google Maps. 

The address he typed in showed an image of a trio of abandoned warehouses on the shore. 

“Cliché much?” Roman muttered. 

Logan pulled open his own laptop and typed some things in. After a minute he turned the computer around and showed them city hall records and a deed to the warehouses. 

“They belong to Lyle Draven,” he reported, “who just so happens to own Belial Industries.”

“There's our proof then, right?” Patton said, excitement building in him. “We can go in there, put a stop to his plan and rescue Thomas!”

“Maybe we shouldn't,” Virgil said quietly. “This guy obviously knows we know who he is. This is a trap.”

“Woah there, Admiral Hack-bar,” Roman said, holding up his hand. “This villain must be dealt with. We have to put a stop to his dastardly schemes. We outnumber him, too!”

“Uh, maybe you've forgotten, Hans, but he has an entire corporation!” Virgil shot back. 

“We have superpowers,” Roman argued. 

“He gave us the powers, nimrod,” Virgil said, waving a hand around and almost hitting Patton. “Which means he definitely has a way to take them away.”

Roman sighed. “Alright. I didn’t want to play this card, but don’t you want to save your brother? And stop this from happening to anyone else?”

Virgil shut up at that. His eyes fell to the floor and all the fight drained out of him as his shoulders slumped. 

“Fine,” he sighed. “But if we die, I’m blaming you.” He pointed at Roman.

The hero grinned. “I can live with that.”

The warehouses looked just as worn down and abandoned as Patton had expected. It definitely fit the cliches. 

As soon as they got there, Logan set to work. Helocated the cameras set up around and started hacking into them. Meanwhile, Virgil went out in the open as the distraction. 

He had put on a smirk, but Patton saw his hands were shaking, and felt the unease and anxiety coming off of him in waves. 

You got this, kiddo, he thought, putting off calming energy, hoping to help. 

Virgil took a deep breath, and then stepped out. 

A minute passed, then a door opened. A small squirrelly man stepped out. 

“What are you doing here?” He hissed. 

“He speaks!” Virgil exclaimed, a hard edge to his voice. Patton could easily see the difference between the Virgil they knew, and Anxiety, the superhero that repeatedly stole from the government, fought them, and insulted them. 

“You aren't due here for a while,” the man crossed his arms. “Leave.”

“I have questions,” Virgil said. 

The man glared. 

“Why do you do this?”

No answer. 

“Who are you?”

Not a sound. 

“Do you work for Lyle Draven?”

The man’s eye twitched and Virgil grinned triumphantly. “You do, don't you?”

Logan nodded at Patton and Roman, letting them know he was done. 

They all stood up and walked over to the man. 

“We know what you’re doing,” Roman said confidently. 

The man sputtered, not looking so brave anymore. He reached up to his earpiece, but Logan scoffed. 

“Do you believe us to be that stupid?” He asked. “You’re cut off. The cameras are on a loop and I have a block on the signal.”

“Logic,” the man hissed. 

“Precisely,”

“You’ll never get where you need to go. You’re too inexperienced. Don't you think we have measures against you?” 

Virgil shot Roman a look. 

Patton stepped forward. He knew what he was trying wouldn't work, but he couldn't not try. 

“Hey, why don't you stand down and let us through?” He said, ignoring the looks from his friends. “If you do that we can vouch for you and you might not go to prison for very long.”

The man raised an eyebrow. 

Virgil shifted slightly, looking ready for an attack.

The man pulled out a gun, pointing it at him. “You have 2 seconds to surrender,” he warned. 

Roman put a hand on his sword, but stopped at drawing it out when the man pulled back the safety. 

Then Virgil, seemingly without moving was gone from Patton’s side and was right in front of the man, punching him in the face.

The man went down like a sack of potatoes, dropping the gun. Luckily it didn’t go off, and Roman crumpled it into a handful of useless metal, then tossed it into the bay. Maybe some fish would find it useful.

“We don’t have much time,” Logan said. “We should get moving.”

Roman led the way, sword at the ready, into the dark warehouse.

They encountered no opposition for a little bit, until a group of generic guards came out of a door. 

Virgil held out a hand and the air around them shimmered with what Patton assumed was an illusion. The guards looked around, then started off down the way they had been heading.

“We need to go down,” Logan said. “I sense a lot of tech down there.” 

The stairs were metal, probably steel, and as they descended them, the air got cooler, and the walls became metal as well. Now their surroundings looked like a Star Wars ship instead of a supervillain lair.

“This is creepy,” Patton whispered, stepping sideways a bit to be nearer to his friends. 

Virgil nodded. “Yeah, I feel you.” Patton noticed his friend’s hands were still shaking, although a bit less than before.

The hallway ended, splitting off into two separate ones, forming a T. 

Everyone immediately looked to Logan, the best and only way they had, at the moment, for navigating. 

He shook his head. “I sense tech coming from both hallways. There’s no way we could accurately pick the right one from just my senses.”

“We’ll split up, then,” Roman announced. 

Virgil shuddered. “Have you never watched a horror movie? The moment they split up, someone dies.”

“Oh please.” Roman rolled his eyes. “This is obviously an action movie flick. What part of superheroes makes you think of horror movies?”

“Splitting up would cut down our search time by at least half.” Logan adjusted his glasses. “And having two people would make it easier to evade capture. We do want to get to your brother in the fastest way possible, do we not?”

Virgil looked down at the mention of his brother. “Yeah,” he said quietly, after a minute of silence.

“Satisfactory.” Logan took a moment to look all of them up and down. “Alright. I believe it make the most sense for me and Roman to go one way, and Virgil and Patton to go the other.”

“What?” Roman said, voice cracking. “I mean, what?” He said, in a lower tone.

“It makes the most sense,” Logan explained. “You and Virgil are the heavy-hitters of the team, while me and Patton are more background help. This way, each team will have one of both.”

“Makes sense to me,” Virgil said.

Patton nodded along. He reached out to grab Virgil’s hand. The two clasped finger as Patton pulled a coin from his pocket. 

“We should decide which way we’re going,” he said. “Heads is right, tails is left.”

The coin flipped through the air into Patton’s outstretched hand, then he turned it over onto his arm, only looking after all this was done. 

“Tails!” He announced. He looked over at Virgil. “Guess we’re going left.”

Roman shot an uneasy glance at Virgil, but relented. “Alright. We’ll meet back here? Wait, how will we communicate?”

Virgil pulled out his phone from a pocket. Logan and Patton did as well. Roman pouted, muttering something about no pockets on his costume. 

“If anyone finds anything, call or text. Put the phones on silent, but set to vibrate,” Logan instructed. “That way they won’t give us away.”

After a few seconds of doing that, the four split and became two, and then it was just Honor and Anxiety, alone against the world.


	9. Roman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Triggers: Fighting, minor swearing, gun violence

Roman still didn’t trust Virgil fully.

He had known Virgil for almost two years now, but as a civilian. He acted so differently as Anxiety. Who knew what he was really like? He could actually think like Anxiety, and he could be leading them straight into a trap. Maybe his protests about splitting up was just reverse psychology. Maybe-

“Prince! Concentrate,” Logan hissed. 

Roman looked up and saw he was falling behind. He sped up a bit, leveling with Logan. 

“We don’t have Virgil with us now, so we’ll have to either avoid more guards or take them down somehow without alerting everyone else in this facility.” Logan said, not sounding out of breath in the slightest, despite the fact they were practically sprinting.

Footsteps echoed off the metal walls, coming around the corner. Roman pulled open the first door he saw and dragged Logan in.

Luckily the room was empty. It looked like an armoury, since there were over two dozen guns hanging from the wall. Roman even saw some nunchucks. The guards thundered past their hiding place.

“Coming in on disturbance point,” come a voice, probably speaking on a walkie talkie. “Stand-by, command.”

Roman shot a glance at Logan to see him concentrating. Probably some technopath stuff. 

The footsteps faded, still heading in Patton and Virgil’s direction. A bit of worry flared in Roman’s gut. He didn’t exactly trust him, but he’d known Virgil for awhile, and Patton was a very old friend, so he was still attached to both of them.

Roman listened to make sure there was no one outside, then opened the door cautiously. 

“Got anything?” He asked.

Logan nodded. “His walkie talkie had a direct connection to this ‘command.’ We’re headed the right way.”

Logan led the way this time, navigating the surprisingly complex maze of hallways as if he’d had a map. Occasionally he’d have to stop, or they had to turn back, or hide from another squadron of guards, but eventually they were in front of a large metal door.

“You’re sure?” Roman asked. 

Logan was studying the keyboard next to the door. “Just numbers,” he reported. “Give me a second. And,” he paused, “maybe draw your sword. There will most definitely be guards.” 

Roman pulled out the sword and prepared himself. 

Now that his trusty sword was in his hands, he felt better about all of this. There was still some anxiety pooling in his gut, but they were attempting to break into an organization that was seemingly single-handedly responsible for both superheroes and supervillains. 

Logan did his techno-whatever stuff, and the door slid open like some kind of Star Trek thing.

“Hey, Roy!” One of the people inside called out. “Did you bring me my cappuccino?”

Then she turned to see Logan and Roman.

Almost immediately a gun was in her hands, pointed at them. “Who are you?” She asked. 

“Step aside, or we’ll be forced to hurt you,” Logan said, his voice hard. Roman nodded, brandishing his sword, even though he knew if she opened fire there was no way he could block all -if any- of them.

She faltered a bit, but stood back up straight. “My-my job is to guard this place.”

“Just you?” Logan asked, eyes narrowed. 

She hesitated before nodding.

“She’s not alone,” Logan realized. Roman swung around only to almost get hit in the face with those nunchucks he’d seen earlier. 

He stumbled back, the guy swinging the nunchucks following. Roman shot a look at Logan, hoping he’d get the message. Logan nodded and turned to the first guard.

The nunchuck guy didn’t seem to have any training with them. He basically just tried to hit Roman with them. His stance was all wrong, and Roman couldn’t help but wince when he saw that. Seriously, was that Lyle Draven guy even trying?

The next time the nunchucks came at him, he grabbed them in mid-air. His palm stung, but it was easy to grab the weapon from the guy. 

“What did you do, just grab the first thing you saw?” Roman asked, looking over the nunchucks. Logan hadn’t had much training with these, so his knowledge was rudimentary at most.

Rudimentary? Jeez, he was spending too much time with Logan. Big words were not his thing.

He took a closer look at the guy that was just trying to beat him up, and was shocked to see he was probably a few younger than Virgil. 

“You’re just a kid!” He exclaimed before he could stop himself. 

“I’m 19,” the kid scowled. 

Roman shot a look over at Logan and the girl. She seemed to be giving Logan access to everything. Now that he looked closer, she looked about as young as the kid over here. 

He knew somewhere in the back of his brain that he was being stupid, he was only 22, 3 years older than this guy. Not that big of an age difference.

The guy lunged at him again. His weapons were fists against a sword, but he didn’t seem to care. 

Now that Roman could see how young he was (not that young) he didn’t want to hurt him. The girl had given up easily, why couldn’t he?

The kid’s fist came for his face, so he just caught it. He twisted the guy’s arm just enough to hurt slightly, but not enough to do any permanent damage. He glanced over at Logan who as typing away, probably erasing them from the systems, as well as Virgil and Patton.

Roman had a bad feeling about this.

This kid was a bit of a problem, not knowing when to quit, but the girl had given up too easy. She had a gun! She could have shot Logan while Roman was busy with her friend.

And if this was command, their central headquarters, with all the information and technology, why was it only guarded by two kids just barely out of high school?

He was about to say something to Logan when he heard a hissing. 

Sure it’s Florida, and snakes are almost as common as crocodiles, but there was no way one was in this sterile science fiction underground villain lair. 

And that was when the guy and girl fainted. 

Roman was starting to feel a bit woozy, and he noticed a pain in his head as if someone was stabbing him above the eye with a blunt knife. He looked over at Logan in time to see him collapse. He stumbled back, wondering who Logan was, and then everything went black. 

When he opened his eyes he was surprised to see he was in the same place as before. Logan, the guy and the girl were gone. 

He tried to sit up and regretted it. The stabbing pain he remembered from before he passed out was back with a vengeance. He sat up slower, head still throbbing, but less now. 

The screen was on, switching between cameras all over the facility. He saw a large warehouse-like space filled with boxes of who-knows-what. It switched and he saw an empty hallway. It switched again and he saw Patton run across the screen.

Where’s Virgil? He thought, brow furrowed. He tapped an arrow key and was back at the empty hallway. He switched keys and saw different hallways, a different room with people watching screens, a room with a rock in the center and a kid touching the rock, another 2 empty hallways, and-

Wait a minute. 

The kid in the rock room had looked suspiciously familiar. He zoomed in, not even aware of what he was doing, and studied the kids face. 

It was like looking at a younger Virgil without the emo hair and style.

“The similarity is amazing, isn’t it?”

Roman twirled around, sword in his hand suddenly, pointed at the man standing behind him.

The man was wearing a bowler hat which made Roman immediately think of Meet the Robinsons, especially with the weird cape thing this man was also wearing. The hat combined with the man tilting his head, and the way he was standing in the shadows prevented Roman from seeing his face.

“Who are you?” He asked.

Only half of the man’s smirk was visible as he answered. “That’s definitely the most important thing right now.” The sarcasm in his voice was apparent.

Roman was confused. “What?”

Roman waited for more, but the man didn’t seem like he was answering anything, especially not an unvoiced question. 

Finally Roman broke. “What is important right now?”

“I have to say, you 4 are the worst things that ever happened to me,” The man said, not at all answering Roman’s question. “Everyone else is so not boring. Logan was not the first to figure it out. Or even get far away. I programmed that message such a short time ago, I almost had not forgotten about it.”

“What message?” Roman asked. This man seemed to mean the opposite of whatever he said. Figuring out what he was saying was causing Roman’s already pounding head to throb more.

The man waved it off. “That’s important right now.”

“Where are my friends?” Roman demanded. “What did you do with them?”

“Everything!” The man said, finally raising his head.

Roman was speechless for a second. The half of his face the man had hid in the shadows was badly burned, the skin pink and scaly, reminding Roman of a lizard. Or a snake. 

He found his voice after a minute. 

“Okay, Black Mum-Lie, you need to answer my questions.”

The man grinned. “Don’t I?”

It took Roman a minute with that one. “Uh, yes, you do, Jekyll and Lied.”

“I did everything to your friends,” The man said. “And poor Virgil did nothing.”

Roman froze. What?

“What does that mean? Are you implying that Virgil hurt the others?” If it was true… Roman lowered his sword slightly, hoping his suspicions weren’t correct.

“No.”

A scream echoed from the computers behind him. He whirled around, momentarily forgetting about the burned man behind him. There was only one thing on his mind.

Patton.

Patton was on the screen, backed into a corner by Virgil. Virgil’s face was twisted in a snarl as he advanced on Patton, shadows curling around him and sharpening.

The picture changed to another empty hallway.

“No!” Roman frantically pressed some keys trying to get back to what he’d seen, but all that he saw was more empty hallways.

He twirled around to the man, but the room was empty. 

Roman cursed, then grabbed his sword and ran out of the room. 

“Patton!” He yelled, not caring if he ran into any guards anymore. “Logan! Where are you?” 

He thought he heard something faintly in the back of his head. It sounded like a voice saying something. 

No time to go crazy now, Roman, he thought. Save it for after you’ve rescued Patton and found Logan and defeated Virgil and maybe whoever that guy was. 

Suddenly the voice was back louder, and his vision was getting blurry again. Was he being gassed again? Was he still affected by the gas from earlier?

“-man! Roman! Holy-”

“Roman! Wake up! Fu-”

Suddenly he snapped up. He was laying in the command center again. 

“Oh thank god,” he heard.

He looked over to see Virgil fighting off three guards. They were firing guns and Virgil had put up a shadow barrier in between them and him. 

“Listen, Princey,” Virgil said, sweating and not even looking over at Roman, “I lost Patton after that gas hit, and I have no idea where Logan is. What we can assume, from everything happening, is that they are aware of us and we need to all meet up.”

Roman growled. “What did you do to Patton?”

Virgil faltered a bit. “What? I just said I lost him.”

“I saw you!” Roman shouted, ignoring the people shooting at them. “You were threatening him!”

“You really think I would threaten Patton?” Virgil asked incredulously. “You guys are my only chance at finding Thomas, why would I attack you guys?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me, Anxiety?”

Virgil froze at the name. Luckily the wall stayed there, giving them cover.

Roman stood up ignoring the headache that was still there, and pulled out his sword. “Let me take care of this,” he muttered. 

Virgil scowled. “Fine.” He let the wall drop in front of Roman and left it for himself.  
The guards saw this immediately and focused fire on Roman. 

Roman yelped, immediately regretting this. He blocked a few bullets with his sword and then ducked behind the computer. They had to run out of ammunition eventually, right?

Five minutes later they still had not.

“Do they have infinite resources?” Roman muttered.

Virgil was watching him with an unimpressed look on his face. 

Finally he seemed to get fed up and lashed out with the shadow wall. The guards went down, unconscious, and Virgil turned to glare at him.

“Nice job, Princey,” he grumbled, then started out of the room.

“Wait!” Roman hurried after him. “You aren’t leaving my sight, Sweeney Todd.” 

Virgil groaned as he kept walking. “You obviously don’t trust me. Why are you following me?”

“Who knows what you’re about to do,” Roman said. “We don’t need anymore problems.”

“Why am I always the bad guy?” Virgil exploded. “I just want to save my brother and have my friends be safe. I would never threaten Patton. I just saved your ass back there. I never wanted to hurt you, or anyone.”

Roman paused, seeing the tears in Virgil’s eyes. He was no empath, but he didn’t think any actor could put on such an emotional performance. He could almost see Virgil’s regret and anger hanging in the air, swirling around them. Or maybe that was just the shadows he could control.

“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt,” Roman said after a minute of silence. “And only because we need to find Logan and Patton. But I know what I saw.”

“Wait,” Virgil frowned. “When did you see it?”  
Roman frowned as well. “Uh, right before the fire fight.”

“When you were asleep?” Virgil asked. 

Roman nodded slowly, vaguely aware of the implications.

“Someone’s trying to turn us against each other,” Virgil said. “Probably the guy behind this all. Lyle Draven.”

“I might have seen him,” Roman said, thinking back to the man with the snake face. 

“Let’s focus on finding Patton and Logan first,” Virgil said, pulling out his phone. “Then we find Thomas and get out of here.”

Roman nodded. 

Virgil was pulling up Logan’s contact. Roman smiled at the name Virgil had him under. 

Virgil hit call, and the phone started ringing.

Calling Professor Specs.

“I already tried Patton,” Virgil said as the phone rang, “But I didn’t get through.”

The phone was picked up. “Virgil?” Logan’s voice was scratchy and he sounded very tired.

“Hey, Specs,” Virgil said. “Any idea where you are, or where Patton is?”

Another voice that wasn’t Logan’s came through, causing Virgil to freeze.

“Virgil? Is that you?”


	10. Logan

The last thing Logan remembered was trying to find Thomas at the command central. Then blackness. 

Now he was lying on the cold ground with someone stabbing his head.

Not literally, of course. That would be ridiculous. 

He sat up slowly, being careful of his head and scanning his surroundings. He seemed to be in a cell in a dingier part of the facility. Once he was fully up, he patted his pockets and was surprised to find he still had his phone.

“Are you awake?”

The voice startled him, and he jumped.

“Who’s there?” He asked, already settling into a martial arts fighting position.

In the cell across the hall, a kid came up to the bars, and effectively into the light as well.

The resemblance was incredible. Logan presumed this was Thomas, as he looked like a younger Virgil.

“I’m Thomas,” the kid said, confirming Logan’s suspicions. “You’re new here.”

“Indeed,” Logan said, recovering from his shock and dropping the stance. “My name is Logan.”

“Did they take you too?” Thomas asked. “You look like a superhero.” 

Logan looked down at his clothes self-consciously, a rare thing for him. Suddenly a thought ran through his head. “Patton!” he cried. 

“Who’s Patton?” Thomas asked.

“My-” Logan paused. “My friend,”

He thought of Patton’s smile and the bubbly feeling rose in his stomach. He pushed it away, blushing. 

“Was he here with you? Were you guys breaking in?” Thomas sounded excited.

Logan nodded. “Yes, I suppose we were,” he said. “Me and my team.”

“Wait, were there more of you?” Thomas grinned. “That would explain why all the guards left after they dragged you here.”

Well that solved that mystery.

Logan’s phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out, casting a quick glance at who was calling him. Virgil. He’d probably been separated from Patton just as Logan had been from Roman, but a bit of hope rose. He was surprised they hadn't searched him, because they probably knew he was a technopath.

He accepted the call. “Virgil?”

Thomas perked up. His eyes widened, even more so when Virgil’s voice filtered through the phone’s speakers. 

“Hey, Specs. Any idea where you are, or where Patton is?”

Before Logan could say anything, Thomas did. 

“Virgil? Is that you?”

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other line. It was quiet for a second, and then a different voice chimed in.

“I think you broke him,” Roman said quietly. “Is that Thomas?”

“Yes!” Thomas cried. 

“I’m sending our location to you,” Logan said. “And my phone is almost done. I need to hang up to conserve battery.”

“We’ll get there as quickly as we can,” Roman said. “We’ll keep an eye out for Patton as well,”

Logan nodded, a lump in his throat as he realized that meant Patton was still missing, alone in this maze of hallways.

Logan hung up and sent his location through Apple Locations. 

He heard a sniffle and looked up to see Thomas crying.

Oh god. Emotions.

“Are you…” he remembered back to Roman’s greeting from a while ago, “uh, Gucci, fahm?”

Thomas sniffed, looking confused. “Am I...Gucci? Isn't that a brand or something?”

Logan frowned. “Yes, I believe so. But my friend Roman, the second person you heard, he says that. I believe it is a new slang word.”

“Oh.” Thomas wiped at his eyes. But it was in vain, as he was still crying and the tears simply wet his cheeks once again. 

“Don't try to stop crying,” Logan said, even though every nerve in his body was screaming for Thomas to stop. “Many studies suggest that crying is a good way to let out your emotions. It seemingly has a positive affect on your mental health and mood in general.”

Thomas giggled. “You talk like a teacher.”

“Logan!” 

Both prisoners looked up to see Roman running towards them, followed by Virgil who’s eyes were as red as Thomas’s. 

Virgil saw Thomas and his eyes filled with tears again, as did the boy’s. 

Roman bent the bars allowing both of them to climb out. As soon as he was out, Thomas launched himself at Virgil, and the two of the them were hugging and talking over each other.

“Oh my god-”

“-actually here-”

-”missed you-”

Eventually the talking died down and they just held on, as if afraid that if they let go the other would disappear.

Logan felt as if he were intruding on a very personal experience and looked away.

“Are you a superhero?” Thomas whispered.

Virgil shot a look at Roman over his brother’s shoulder, and when the Prince nodded a smile spread across his face. “I guess I kinda am,”

“Well that’s definitely not touching.”

Logan turned to see a man in a cape and bowler hat standing in the hallway. He had a crazy look in his eye, but the most worrying thing was that he was gripping Patton’s arm.

“Patton!” Roman cried, raising his sword, ready to charge in and save their friend.

The man held up a hand. “You don't want to do that, Sir Knight.”

Roman growled. “And why not?”

“Let go of Patton,” Virgil demanded. 

Logan glanced back at him and saw that the shadows were starting to curl around Virgil threateningly. Thomas looked scared but also in awe at his older brother’s powers. Virgil had pushed the kid behind him in an attempt to protect him.

“Yes, I will do that.” The man said, meaning the exact opposite.

“Fight me, Lie Lie Birdie!” Roman yelled. “Let him go!”

“Guys, you’ve gotta get out of here!” Patton said. “He’s blocking off the exits and distracting you.”

“You’re more important, Patton,” Logan said. He felt very useless in this situation. There was almost no technology around him, so he was unable to use his powers, and Patton was being used as this man’s shield, so he couldn’t use any of his martial arts training.

“At least get Thomas out of here, Virgil!” Patton cried.

The man grinned at Virgil. “No, don’t do that,” he said sarcastically.

Virgil stumbled backwards, paler than usual. He put a hand to his head as he cried out. 

“Virgil!” Thomas caught his arm.

“What are you doing to him?” Roman demanded as Virgil slid down the wall into a sitting position. 

“Nothing much,” the man 

“Stop lying!” Logan demanded, his attention split between Patton’s and Virgil’s predicaments. 

The man snapped his fingers, smile disappearing. A group of guards came behind Virgil and Thomas, and some behind him, boxing them all in. 

“Fine,” He snapped. “You all were fun to play with, but now I have no more uses for you.” He directed his last words at the guards. “Kill them.” He let go of Patton’s arm and left. 

Virgil groaned as he tried to stand up. Simultaneously, the guards started forwards. Thomas whimpered, and even Roman looked nervous. 

Logan glanced around quickly, trying to come up with some kind of plan. He spotted a camera and a plan started to form. 

“Virgil, can you give us cover?” He asked, glancing over at the now second youngest of the group.

Virgil raised his hands and walls cut them off from the guards. He grunted as a bunch of the guards started attacking the wall attempting to get through. 

“Hurry,” he said through gritted teeth. 

Patton ran over to him and his hands glowed white as he lent strength to Virgil. 

Logan concentrated on the cameras and they started glowing red as he heated them up. It took a minute, but eventually the wires and components inside exploded, causing the metal to shatter and spray the guards below with shrapnel.

The assaults against the walls were momentarily abandoned and Logan took the time to explain his plan. 

“Are you sure about this?” Patton asked, worry apparent on his face.

No, he was not sure about this. He’d barely had practice doing this with one computer, he had no idea if this was going to work. But he couldn’t let them know that. They were all worried enough.

“Yes, I am sure.”

Roman huffed. “If this kills us, I’m going to revive you just to kill you again.” His tone sounded slightly annoyed, but Logan could see he too was hiding his nerves. 

Logan closed his eyes and tried to sense what he was looking for. Surprisingly, his mind connected with all of them pretty easily. He pulled, expecting some backlash, but not this much. Immediately his head was full of white noise. 

He felt something drip from his nose but ignored it. He had bigger things to worry about then a nosebleed. 

This time he pushed and felt the heat he was looking for.

Outside the walls he heard a few of the guards already crying out from this.

He pushed farther, ignoring the building headache (second one today), and felt a few explode.

He didn’t know why, but he opened his eyes and made eye contact with Patton. Instantly a surge of strength filled his gut and he pushed harder and felt all the walkie talkies explode. 

After a few seconds of quiet, Virgil let down the walls, revealing all the guards were down. Logan avoided looking at any wounds he had caused, knowing he didn’t want to see the pain he’d caused. 

After a few seconds of shocked silence, Roman finally spoke.

“We need to get out of here,” he said. “We can all tell Logan how amazing he is after we get out of here.”

A few of the guards were already starting to get up. 

“Good idea,” said Patton. 

Roman helped Virgil up and he and Thomas supported the anti-hero who was still weak from whatever Draven had done to him. 

Logan thought he was fine, but when he took a step he stumbled and almost fell if not for Patton. 

They linked arms and Patton helped them keep up with the group. 

“I thought I was fine,” Logan muttered. 

“It's okay to not be fine,” Patton said. “Not everyone is fine 100 percent of the time. Remember you can always ask for help, yeah?” 

Logan nodded, a small smile on his face. The fluttering was back because of the close proximity. 

Patton’s eyes met his and they stared for a minute. Logan, for the first time in forever couldn't think of anything to say. 

“Hey, we don't have time to make goo-goo eyes at each other!” Roman called. “We're losing time.”

Logan shook himself and looked away from the now red Patton whose face probably mirrored his own. 

“Are they dating?” Logan heard Thomas ask Roman in what he probably thought was a hushed voice. 

“Not yet,” the Prince replied, “but we have a bet to see how long it will take them to get together.”

Logan flushed again, sparing a glance at Patton who seemed to not have heard. 

I don't have time for this, he told himself. We don't have time for this 

Emotions were confusing enough while not in the middle of a life-or-death scenario. They should not be his focus. 

He fumbled with his phone and pulled up the map he’d downloaded before. A quick glance at his battery revealed he only had 5% left, and he prayed it would last them.

Following the map brought them to the same door they’d entered the warehouse in. They all stood before the door for a minute, hesitant to face what awaited them beyond it. Virgil gripped Thomas’s hand tighter, and Logan looked over at Patton, just in case it was the last time.

Then they all looked at each other and Logan nodded. 

Roman reached out and opened the door.


	11. Virgil

Virgil hadn’t seen his brother in years. He had gone through all the stages of grief, pushing away his few friends. Thomas’s disappearance had affected his friends too, especially Joan, his best friend. 

Now, he wasn’t going to let anything happen to him if it killed him. 

He’d just gotten his brother back, they weren’t going to take him again. 

He was expecting an instant fight once they stepped out of the door, but instead they were greeted with a phrase that Virgil was sorry to say he was familiar with.

“Come out with your hands up, we have the place surrounded.”

Virgil’s breath caught in his throat at the sight that awaited them.

The place was indeed surrounded, with police forces dressed in riot gear. The one who’d told them to surrender had a megaphone and standing next to him was Lyle Draven.

Even just looking at the lying snake gave Virgil chills. Whatever he’d done to him, it felt like it had worn off, but he remembered the feeling of it- as if something had been ripped from his chest, like his entire being was being stripped away.

“That’s them,” Draven said, feigning a scared look. “They attacked me and my property!”

Virgil’s heart skipped a beat. Draven had a lot of money, so the police would most definitely believe him over them. How would they get out of this? It did not look good.

He looked over at the others, keeping a tight grip on Thomas’s hand, remembering the promise he’d made himself. Over my dead body.

Roman had a hand on his sheath and an angry expression, but luckily he was restraining himself. Patton had his Disappointed Dad Look™ and was still supporting Logan. Logan looked better than he had after the Walkie Talkie Explosion, but he was still paler than normal and still had dried blood on his lip.

“Let me handle this,” Patton said, just loud enough for them to hear, ducking out from under Logan’s arm. 

“What? No!” Virgil blurted in a panic.

“I have to, kiddo,” Patton said, putting one hand on Virgil’s shoulder. “I can bring the tension down. Give everyone a calm feeling. I have the best chance of getting them to stand down.”

Logan grimaced. “I don’t like it, but he’s right.”

Roman hesitated, then nodded tersely. “Be careful.”

Patton grinned. “Always.” Then he turned to Thomas. “I’m really glad you’re okay, kiddo.”

Thomas gave him a slight smile. “Don’t die.”

Patton ruffled his hair. “I promise.” Then he stepped away from them, hands raised in a non-threatening manner. “Hold up!” he called.

Virgil took a deep breath, trying to quell the anxiety at seeing the guns pointed at Patton. His fingers curled into a fist and he resisted the urge to push all the cops away with shadows so they could run. Violence was not the answer.

“Stand down,” the guy with the megaphone said.

Patton raised his arms higher. “We don’t mean any harm.”

‘Surrender yourselves and hand over the boy.”

Virgil gripped Thomas’s hand tighter and glared at Draven who was trying and failing to keep a grin off his face.

“Whatever that man told you is a lie,” Patton said. Virgil could see a slight glow on his hands as he worked his magic to calm everyone. “We haven’t done anything.”

“They attacked me!” Draven shrieked, suddenly the victim again. “Look, he’s using his superpowers right now!”

“We did not!” Roman said, stepping forward and drawing his sword an inch from its sheath.

Instantly all guns were on the prince. Logan grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

“How long have we been helping this city?” Patton asked. All attention was back on him. “What reason could we have for attacking him? Our only goal is to make this city a safer place for everyone. We’ve worked with the police before! You trusted us before- trust us again. Don’t believe this man’s lies.”

A few cops seemed moved, and started to lower their guns.

“Trust?” Draven said, his voice quiet yet everyone heard it. “They speak of trust, but look at them! They know our identities- our real name. Yet they go around in masks leaving no clue as to who they are. And right there is the villain Anxiety! How can we trust so called heroes is they work with villains! Who knows their real plans?”

Virgil felt his eyes involuntarily pool with tears. Draven was right- why should anyone trust him? He was a villain- he stole from the government and had even attacked his friends. Granted, he didn’t know they were his friends at the time, but he still did it.

He looked over at Roman and Logan, expecting them to step away from him, claim it was a misunderstanding and they weren’t in any way associated with him, but it didn’t happen. Instead, it seemed like Roman took a step towards him. 

Suddenly Logan tensed. 

Virgil took notice of the sudden straightening of Logan’s spine (If it was even possible. Boy’s got great posture).

“Is something wrong?” He whispered, wincing at how his voice shook from even that simple question.

“Hey you, in the black, stop talking!” Megaphone guy yelled. “No plans.”

Logan grimaced. “This is important, sir.”

“What do you mean?’

Logan glanced over at the building. “I mean that there is an explosive in that building and it’s set to combust soon. We need to evacuate the area.”

A few of the cops started muttering as Virgil and Roman exchanged panicked looks. 

This was not good. This was not good at all.

“Steady!” Megaphone Man yelled. “It may be a bluff.”

“Please, I wouldn’t be saying anything if it weren’t serious,” Logan said, balling his fists up in a uncharacteristic, almost Roman-like gesture. “You need to get your people out of here right now, or there’s a chance we will all die. Perish. Expire. Do I need to spell it out further?”

Virgil looked over at Draven and scowled when he saw his face. The man was openly grinning now, all focus off him for the time being. 

Megaphone Man yelled once again for the cops to stand their ground, though there was a tinge of worry in his voice as he gave the order. Virgil could see Logan’s words were getting to him, at least a little bit.

While one half of him processed that, the other half was freaking out about the bomb. 

Unlike the police, Virgil trusted Logan and knew he wouldn’t lie about something like this. But that just made him even more anxious because holy crap there’s a bomb and it could kill us all if we don’t get out of here.

Logan spun around and scanned the building.

“There’s a little under five minutes left on the timer,” he deduced. “I can maybe slow it down, but it won’t be as effective if I’m not touching it. There’s no way to find it in time, so we’ll have to make due. We’re going to let it explode.”

“What?” Virgil shrieked, almost forgetting that they were surrounded by cops that were prepared to shoot all of them at a moments notice if they made one wrong move. 

“I am not finished, Virgil,” Logan said. Thankfully they were far enough that none of the cops could have heard his name. “I need you to cover the warehouse with those shadows of yours. If we can contain the explosion it will not do as much damage.”

Virgil’s stomach felt sick. “I don’t know-”

“We don’t have time for doubts,” Logan snapped. His eyes were closed, and he was probably already starting on the timer. “Sooner rather than later!”

Patton placed a hand on his shoulder. “You got this, kiddo. I’m rooting for ya.”

“You can do this,” Roman said. “You have to do this.”

Virgil took a deep breath, and then summoned all the shadows he could feel all around him to crawl over the warehouse.

After Draven had hit him with whatever had drained his powers, he’d felt weak for awhile- the kind of weak that made him remember having the flu as a kid. Chills, shaky, he could barely walk. After a few minutes it had faded, thankfully. But now as he tried to summon his power that had come to him so easily in the past, he felt weak again, drained. 

Controlling shadows was the easiest of his powers to control. Illusions were harder- they dealt with the mind, and other people. Shadows had no connection to any of that.

He let out a wheeze of pain and felt Patton’s hand on his shoulder. Almost immediately, he felt a little stronger. He was starting to get used to what Pat’s healing power felt like, and he wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

But it felt like something was fighting against Patton’s power, probably that Draven thing. 

Logan gasped. “I’m letting it go. You need to hold those shadows, Virgil. Roman, you and I need to get these policemen out of here. Thomas, come with us”

Virgil vaguely saw them leaving, all his energy concentrated on holding the shadows in place. He would hold them if it was the last thing he did. He couldn’t allow anyone to die.

Patton was still sending strength to him, but it didn’t seem like enough. Virgil was started to get dizzy, and his head hurt more than it ever had before. He could feel his hold on the shadows start to slip. 

Shadows, as intangible presences, didn’t like being controlled. Like water, they would put up with it, but once given the chance, they would always break free. 

If it seemed like he was losing his grip in the slightest, they would take the chance to go back to where they were supposed to be. 

Virgil growled as he felt some slip away, and wrestled control back. He was in charge. He was in command. He was not going to let anybody die on his watch.

Taking back control sent even more pain stabbing through his head, and he felt like passing out, but he knew he had to just keep holding on, just another minute, Virgil. 

The explosion was the straw that broke Virgil’s back.

Imagine being trampled and kicked by a soccer team in cleats. Now imagine that times two, plus add some acid coursing through your veins, and for seasoning, salt in all your wounds. 

Virgil was dimly aware of himself screaming, and of Patton yelling something at him, but he was too focused on keeping the explosion contained. 

The last thing he remembered before he blacked out was a few shadows slipping from his grasp and the entire thing falling apart, letting the last bit of the explosion out, the feeling of himself being thrown away from where he had been, and of someone screaming his name. 

“Virgil!”


	12. Thomas

Thomas had been alone for a very long time.

What with being a prisoner and all, he didn’t really get put much. 

He never got updates on anything happening in the world. He had no idea who these strangely dressed people were, or why or how his brother was one of them. 

Given they were all rescuing him, he assumed they were all heroes, like from the comics that he and Virgil would read together. 

But then that evil dude said something about a villain named Anxiety and Thomas saw Virgil trying to hide tears, and everything clicked. 

Virgil had become a villain, probably to stop the real bad guys from killing him. 

Everything happened kind of fast after that. 

The one that had been trapped with Thomas for a little while said something about a bomb, and enlisted Virgil to help, then Thomas was led away by the fancy prince guy and helped him convince the police people to run, and then Thomas heard a scream. 

Thomas broke away from the prince and ran back towards where he had left Virgil, silently cursing himself for doing that, ignoring the prince’s calls for him. 

He arrived just in time to see the protective barrier of shadows dissipate and the last bits of the explosion expand, throwing his brother from where he was standing. 

He hadn’t meant to, but when he saw that, he screamed Virgil’s name. 

The blue hero that had been next to Virgil, hand glowing on his shoulder, had been thrown too, but he was the first one back to the crumpled body of Thomas’s brother. 

His hands were glowing, like they had before, and he was muttering something under his breath. Thomas couldn’t hear it until he got closer. 

“Come on, Virge, don’t give up on us. We- I need you to pull through.”

Thomas gasped as he saw the state his brother was in. Virgil was paler than he’d ever seen, and there was blood running down the side of his face, a lot of blood, too much, too much-

Blue guy looked up at the gasp. “Thomas! What are you doing?”

Thomas looked up, momentarily distracted from the panic he’d been feeling. 

“Thomas!” Roman yelled. “What are you-“

He stopped as he saw the group, and his face paled. 

“Is he-“

“Not on my watch,” Blue guy growled. 

“Patton-“ Everyone startled at the new voice and turned to the last unaccounted member of the group, “-you need to calm down. If you’re this angry it could affect your healing powers.”

The guy Thomas had mentally dubbed Blue guy, whose real name was apparently Patton, wiped his eyes. 

“I can’t lose him, Lo,” he said quietly. 

“We aren’t going to,” the last guy- Lo, Paton had called his- said, kneeling next to the distraught hero. “He’s too strong to let go now. Now try again.”

Patton took a deep breath and placed his hands on Virgil’s chest again. 

Thomas clenched his fists hard enough to feel his fingernails digging into his palms. He couldn’t lose Virgil again. 

It felt like forever and a split second all at once before Patton fell back, looking exhausted. 

“He should be fine now,” he said. “I can’t do any more for him.”

“We should probably take our leave now,” Logan recommended. “The police are starting to come back, and many of them believe Draven’s lies.”

Roman huffed. “We need a better name for him. A real supervillain name like the Joker or Lex :uthor.”

Logan frowned. “Lex Luthor is his real name- never mind, we don’t have time for this. Patton you take point with Thomas, Roman and I will get Virgil.”

Patton held out a hand towards Thomas with a small smile. “You ready to go, kiddo?”

“Is Virgil going to be okay?” Thomas sniffed, taking the proffered hand.

Patton nodded, staring into the distance like a dramatic ending to a movie. “Yeah, he will be. I think we all will be.”

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! So as you may have noticed, there are a lot of plot holes. I'm trying to set it up so I could do a sequel, if people like this. Let me know if you have any constructive criticism, or any tips or ideas for this story. Thanks so much for reading!  
> -Grace


End file.
